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LETTER AND SPIRIT: 



SSLincfjegter ILectures. 



BY 



RICHARD METCALF. 




BOSTON: 
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 
1870. 




THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, 

the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
District of Massachusetts. 



CAMBRIDGE : 
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 



HE PEOPLE OF WINCHESTEK, 

"WHOSE QUESTIONS I HAVE TRIED TO ANSWER HERE, 



PREFACE. 



I was often asked, " What do Unitarians 
believe ? Why do they believe it ? and, How 
do they explain the Bible passages which are 
used to teach a different faith ? " In reply, 
I gave a course of " Winchester Lectures," 
which, with a few alterations, are now pre- 
sented to the public. 

As for the form of the lectures, I aimed 
chiefly at a statement clear enough to be un- 
derstood by all, and short enough to be re- 
membered. 

As for the range of topics, I took up the 
doctrines about which I was questioned, and 
none others. 



viii 



PREFACE. 



As for the name of the book, I call it the 
" Letter,' 5 because I think it is the literal mean- 
ing of what Jesus taught in his Gospel, eigh- 
teen centuries ago ; and the " Spirit," because 
I think it is what the Spirit of God teaches, 
this very day, through the spirit of man. 

R. M. 

Winchester, Mass., Dec, 1869. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface vii 

LECTURE 

I. The Use of Creeds 9 

Have Unitarians a creed ? 9 

Creeds and character 11 

Creeds not final 13 

Free inquiry 15 

Value of creeds 17 

II. One God — the Father 20 

Minorities and majorities 21 

Following the wisest 22 

Trinitarian language unscriptural . . 23 

Only one God' 25 

Jesus' own testimony 26 

Confessions of Faith 27 

God and Satan 28 

The Father 29 

III. What think ye of Christ? .... 31 

Belief in Christ ........ 32 

Christ and God 33 

Christ and Man 36 



2 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE PAGE 

Christ, the great Teacher 37 

Christ, the Mediator 38 

Christ, our Atonement 40 

Christ, the Saviour 41 

Christ crucified 42 

Christ, our heavenly Brother .... 44 

IV. " The Son of God" 46 

Common meaning of the phrase ... 46 

How applied to J esus 50 

Only-begotten Son . 50 

First-begotten Son 52 

God's own Son 52 

Jesus a Son 55 

Jesus the Son 56 

V. The Holy Spikit 58 

The Holy Spirit of the Bible .... 59 

The gifts of the Spirit ...... 62 

Promise of the Comforter 64 

The promise fulfilled 65 

The essential doctrine 67 

The lesson of the hour 69 

VI. " What is Man?" 72 

Man, the Son of God 73 

Libels on human nature 75 

44 All souls are mine " 77 

God's, by creation 78 

God's, by education 80 

God's, by redemption ...... 82 

Filial obligations . 84 



CONTENTS. xi 

LECTURE PAGE 

VII. The Unquenchable Tire 85 

Gehenna 85 

Eternal punishment unscriptural ... 86 

Eternal punishment unreasonable ... 89 

This fire a reality 90 

Fires, present and future ...... 91 

Use of these fires 91 

Salvation of all 93 

Objection to this doctrine 95 

Lesson of the hour 96 

Our tribulations 97 

The unpardonable sin. Note .... 99 

VIII. The Day of Judgment 101 

Jesus' own predictions 101 

Apostolic predictions 103 

* ' Judgment to come " 105 

" End of the world" 106 

The fulfilment 107 

Will the world end ? Ill 

Our day of judgment 113 

Christ has come 115 

IX. Salvation 117 

The two meanings 117 

What we want 119 

What is possible 121 

How Jesus saves 124 

True repentance 125 

Certainty of salvation 128 

Moral power 130 

Summary of doctrine 132 



xii CONTENTS. 

LECTUKE PAGE 

X. The New Birth 135 

Seeing God's kingdom 135 

Meaning of new birth 139 

Who must be changed 146 

The practical lesson 147 

XI. The Life that now is . . . . . . 150 

Nearest world and next world . . . 151 

God's presence here 153 

A present heaven 155 

Unquenchable fires now 157 

Worth of the body 160 

Worth of the world 166 

XII. The Liee that is to come . . . . 171 

Universality of belief 172 

Great faith of the dying 174 

Love for the departed 175 

Teachings of Jesus . 176 

Personal identity 178 

Endless progress 180 

Ministering spirits 181 

Reunion of friends 183 



LECTUEE I. 



THE USE OF CREEDS. 

JNITAEJAN doctrines were once so often 
proclaimed, in sermons, tracts, and pub- 
lic controversies, that whether a man believed 
or denied, he could not well fail to know 
what they are. Now, however, not only has 
a new generation of Unitarians arisen, which 
knows not Channing and "Ware, and is sadly 
ignorant of the very faith it professes, but 
many outside of our church are truly desirous 
of knowing what we believe. From within 
and from without the question is continually 
coming, Wliat is the Unitarian Faith ? and it 
is a question we are always glad to answer. 

HAVE UNITARIANS A CREED? 

But have Unitarians a creed ? As an or- 
ganized body we have none. There is no 



10 



TEE USE OF CREEDS. 



formal statement of belief that has ever been 
voted on and adopted by the denomination. 
There are no articles to which a man must 
assent before he becomes connected with our 
churches ; for Greek and Roman Catholics, 
Trinitarian and Unitarian Protestants, are 
alike welcomed to our baptismal rites, com- 
munion service, the fellowship and privileges 
of the Church, if they are truly seeking the 
Christian life. TVe have no one creed bind- 
ing upon all the members of our body. But 
each one of us has his own creed, which is as 
full and long as that of any other Christian. 
For a creed is simply a belief, though it may 
never have been written down upon paper, or 
uttered in definite phrases by the lips. The 
faith which a man clings to and positively be- 
lieves is really his creed. While, therefore, we 
differ among ourselves as the members of all 
churches do, there are certain fundamental 
points on which we are all agreed. It is to 
these fundamental agreements that I shall 
chiefly call your attention, and shall begin 



THE USE OF CREEDS. 



11 



with considering our doctrine concerning the 
use of creeds. 

I. CREEDS AND CHARACTER. 

No creed is to be made a test of character. 
To say of the living, " they are Christian " 
because they believe what we do, or " unchris- 
tian M because they believe something else ; 
to say of the departed, . they have gone to 
heaven because they accepted our creed, or to 
a very different place because they rejected it ; 
that is a practice too often followed in the 
churches, but always and everywhere de- 
nounced by Unitarians. We find no sanc- 
tion for any such mode of judgment in the 
teachings of the Spirit within us, and certainly 
none in the words or life of Jesus. Not those 
who call him " Lord, Lord," are to enter the 
kingdom of heaven and live with him there 
for ever, but they, and they alone, who do the 
Father's will ; and so in his description of the 
judgment scene, the dread penalties are an- 
nounced, not against unbelievers or misbe- 



12 THE USE OF CREEDS. 

lievers, but only against the workers of iniqui- 
ty, or chiefly against those who neglect to do 
the right. Nowhere in his teachings is intel- 
lectual belief held up as a ground for either 
praise or blame. When, therefore, the churches 
about us require this creed or that to be signed 
before admitting you to their privileges, we 
boldly say that their practice cannot be de- 
fended by one word which was ever spoken 
by Jesus of Nazareth, any more than it can 
by the words which the Comforter is whisper- 
ing this day to our hearts. 

At the entrance to the visible Church below 
sit the doctors of theology, the self-appointed 
judges of their fellow-men. To all applicants 
for admission they say, " Do you believe the 
Trinity or Unity, the atonement or reconcilia- 
tion, as we understand and explain them ? " 
And when honest hearts declare they cannot 
accept such articles of faith, the answer comes, 
" Depart from us, ye who err in your belief ; 
the gates of the Church shall not open for 
you." But, thank God, this judgment is not 



THE USE OF CREEDS. 



13 



the last. At the entrance of the invisible 
Church is he whom the Father hath appointed 
judge. Of those who draw near he asks the 
question, not " Did you believe the doctrines 
I taught ? " but " Did you visit the suffering 
children of God and minister unto them ? " 
Then shall they who, in spite of darkness, 
doubt, and misbelief, tried to do the Father's 
will, hear the welcome, " Well done : enter 
into the joy of your Lord." And they shall 
enter in to go no more out for ever. 

II. CREEDS NOT FINAL. 

No creed is to be regarded as a final state- 
ment of truth. If instead of considering it 
simply a statement of present belief you look 
upon it as perfect and entire, wanting noth- 
ing; if you imagine it contains not merely 
the truth, but the whole truth and nothing 
but the truth, so that nothing can be added 
to it or taken from it, then it will surely harm 
your mind and soul. It will so enslave you 
that you will miss the glorious liberty of the 



14 



THE USE OF GREEDS. 



sons of God, — the liberty of roaming unchal- 
lenged through the whole domain of truth. 
For what are we, even the wisest and best 
of us, that we vainly imagine we know all 
that God can reveal or man can learn ; that 
we think our finite minds have comprehended 
the Infinite; that we suppose we have by 
searching found out every thing about God, 
and in our wisdom have learned to know him 
perfectly ! No, friends ! Our very name, 
disciples, means learners, and shows that we 
are yet to remain in that attitude of soul, 
wherein the inner eye shall be open to each 
new gleam of heavenly truth, and the inner 
ear open to each new whisper of the still 
small voice of God. 

The Great Teacher did not proclaim all 
truth. There were many things which he 
wanted to say, but withheld because the dis- 
ciples could not bear them at the time ; they 
were never to be taught by his lips, but only 
in after years by the spirit of truth abiding in 
human hearts. There are many other things 



THE USE OF CREEDS. 15 

also, which we, like the disciples, misunder- 
stand when they first come to us from Jesus, 
and do not comprehend the full meaning of, 
till taught by the varied experience of life. 
Some things which he says as well as does, 
we know not now, but we shall know here- 
after. For it is not Christian character only, 
but Christian theology, which is " first the 
blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the 
ear." We therefore do not regard even the 
best creed as final. We look for new truths, 
and new statements of old ones. We look 
for some things which Jesas did not declare, 
and which must be taught by the Holy Spirit ; 
and also for richer and higher meanings in 
his recorded words. 

III. FREE INQUIRY. 

As a consequence of what was just said, 
we maintain the unlimited right of free inqui- 
ry. No one can justly interfere with this. 
No man or church can set bounds to the prog- 
ress of religious thought, and say to the in- 



16 THE USE OF CREEDS. 

quiring spirit, " Thus far shalt thou go and 
no farther." For each one is at liberty to 
think for himself, and abide by his honest con- 
victions. 

This liberty of thought is something more 
than a right which may be used or laid aside 
as we please ; it is a positive duty, always 
and everywhere binding upon us. Yes, a 
positive duty to seek whatever new light 
comes from heaven, and to re-examine by it 
at times your old belief. " To the law and 
to the testimony," — to the three great wit- 
nesses of the Divine, — God in nature, God 
in his inspired teachers, and God in his ever- 
present Holy Spirit ; if your creed agree not 
with these, it is because there is no light in it. 
We would have you go to all these witnesses, 
because they are parts of the law and testi- 
mony of God. He who searches the Scrip- 
tures does well; but in refusing to search 
any thing else, he does not do well. God is 
in the Bible, and no church proclaims it more 
emphatically than we; but He is also every- 



THE USE OF CREEDS. 



17 



where and in all things, and this cannot be 
forgotten without great loss. The whole 
universe is an expression of the God who 
created it and dwells in it. Astronomy is his 
word written in flaming characters all over 
the heavens, and geology his word graven on 
the solid rock; and so geology is but the 
lithograph, and astronomy the photograph, of 
that Divine Word, which was not only " made 
flesh," but ages before, was made rock, star 5 
and flower, to dwell among us where we 
might behold its glory. ^ And here in our own 
souls is a perpetual revelation from God 
through that Holy Comforter who will abide 
with us, even unto the end of the world. 
Now what Unitarianism maintains is the 
duty of every man to seek whatever religious 
truth comes from all these sources. 



IV. VALUE OF CREEDS. 

We test Christianity by the life rather than 

belief, by the heart more than the head. We 

do not say to those who come, " Because you 
2 



18 



THE USE OF CREEDS. 



believe what we do, we receive you into our 
number ; " but the one invitation which goes 
forth from our lips is this : " Brother, if your 
heart is right, give me your hand." Yet we 
cling to the doctrines we hold, and proclaim 
them earnestly, because the right belief helps 
in the formation of the right character. A 
correct knowledge of what Jesus was, said, 
and did, helps us gain that spirit of Christ 
without which we are none of his. It is only 
the truth which can set us free from gloomy 
superstitions. It is only the truth which can 
set at liberty those who, through fear of death, 
are all their lifetime subject to bondage. 
Nothing but the right doctrine concerning 
God can make us come to him with filial 
love, instead of shrinking away with abject 
fear. Nothing but true ideas of life will help 
us live always as in the divine presence, ren- 
dering service, not unto man only, but God. 
Nothing but right ideas of death will sustain 
us when we part from those who leave our 
homes but not our hearts, to go unto their 



THE USE OF CREEDS. 



19 



Father and our Father; and nothing but 
right ideas of the future will enable a man to 
say in all sincerity, that " To live is Christ, 
but to die is gain." So, while no one gains 
or loses divine favor because of his belief, he 
will yet, through that belief, either gain or 
lose hope, joy, and consolation. The strength 
with which we do the Father's will, and the 
calm trust with which we let it be done, are 
alike determined by the sincere belief to which 
we cling. Therefore I ask you to consider 
with me the essential doctrines of our Unita- 
rian Church. 



LECTURE II. 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



"jyr ANY people object to re-opening a ques- 
tion which seems to have been decided 
by a majority of their fellow-men, especially 
when that decision accords with their own 
belief. But majorities cannot decide a truth. 
There was a time when the whole Church 
numbered one hundred and twenty souls; 
yet Christianity was "as true then as now, 
when it numbers more than one hundred and 
twenty millions. There was an earlier day 
when our religion was confined to one single 
breast, that of Jesus of Nazareth ; but it was 
as true then as it will be in that coming day, 
when he who has been lifted up from the 
earth shall have drawn all men unto him. 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



21 



MINORITIES AND MAJORITIES. 

I do not mean to imply that the doctrine 
of only one God, the Father, is held by a very 
small minority of Christians. In our country 
it is taught not only by those who are called 
Unitarians, but also by the Christian Disci- 
ples, Progressive Friends, and, foremost in 
point of numbers, the Universalists ; so that 
it is probably proclaimed or implied every 
Sunday in the teachings of at least fifteen 
hundred pulpits. Still any attempt to decide 
the question by numbers would lead only to 
hopeless confusion. If I leave the Unitarian 
Church for the Orthodox, because the advo- 
cates of the latter are more numerous, I must 
for the same reason give up Orthodoxy itself 
for the old Greek Church, which is far larger 
and more powerful. Then the Church of 
Rome would command me by her multitude 
of worshippers, more than one-half of Chris- 
tendom, to enter her venerable portals. But 
Mahometanism claims as much popularity as 



22 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



Romanism, and Christians and Mahometans 
both are outnumbered by the heathen nations 
of Asia and Africa. The followers of Christ 
number scarcely one-third of the human race, 
and therefore if we are to be guided by num- 
bers in our investigation of truth, we must 
begin by giving up Christianity itself as some- 
thing which the great majority of mankind do 
not believe. Majorities cannot decide a truth. 

FOLLOWING THE WISEST. 

Some who would not have us follow the 
multitude, would yet urge us to follow the 
wisest and best. But this would be an un- 
safe rule to adopt, since we are apt to consid- 
er those " wisest " who agree with us, and 
those "best" who do what we think is right. 
If, however, this rule should be adopted, we 
should not be ashamed to be classed with 
those who have held our doctrine of the strict 
unity of God. "We should point to men like 
Milton, Newton, Lardner, and Priestley in 
England, Franklin, Adams, Channing, and 



ONE GOD THE FATHER. 



23 



Ballou in our country, and say that we find 
no wiser heads or purer hearts than are found 
amons: the advocates of this faith. "We think 
we are following the wisest, in holding this 
doctrine so firmly; and yet we do not urge 
it upon others for this reason, but only be- 
cause we think it is the truth. We do not 
refer you to the number of men, or the wis- 
dom of men, but to the simple record of what 
Jesus was, said, and did, for the proof which 
we have to offer that there is but one God, 
the Father. 

TRINITARIAN LANGUAGE UNSCRIPTURAL. 

In examining the New Testament, we find 
a strong argument for our faith in the fact 
that we nowhere meet the words which are 
always used in stating the opposite doctrine 
of the Trinity. Trinity, Triune God, Jehovah 
Jesus, God-man, are nowhere met with. We 
find no mention of the first, second, or third 
person of the Godhead. We look for " God 
the Son," and find only the " Son of God." 



24 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



We look for " God the Holy Spirit/' and find 
only the " Spirit of God," or the " Holy Spir- 
it." You do not believe a principle of gov- 
ernment is constitutional if it cannot be stated 
in constitutional terms ; and we do not believe 
any doctrine to be Scriptural which cannot 
be stated in Scriptural terms. 

Only three passages in the common version 
of the New Testament seem to mention the 
Father, Son, and Spirit in one sentence. 
One of these is the baptismal formula (Matt, 
xxviii. 19), which all Unitarians can use, be- 
cause it does not say that the three who are 
mentioned are equal, or that each one is God, 
and therefore it is no statement of a Trinity. 
Another passage is the apostolic benediction 
(2 Cor. xiii. 14), " The grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ," &c. ; but it is not said that 
each is God, or that all are equal, and there- 
fore it is no statement of a Trinity. One 
more text, as our common version stands 
(1 John v. 7), mentions the Father, the Word, 
and the Holy Ghost, and says " these three 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



25 



are one." But the impartial scholars of every 
denomination now agree in rejecting the pas- 
sage as being the production of a later age, 
and not written by the apostle ; and Calvin, 
who thought that John wrote it, still says it 
does not refer to the Trinity, but only means 
that the three bear one record, are one in 
their testimony. 

ONLY ONE GOD. 

While we cannot find in the Bible a state- 
ment of the Trinity, we do meet passages 
which expressly declare that the Father alone 
is God, Jesus says in his prayer to the Fa- 
ther, " That they might know thee, the only 
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 
sent." To the same effect we have the words 
of Paul : " There is one God, and one Media- 
tor between God and men, the man Christ 
Jesus ; " and also, " To us there is but one 
God, the Father, and . . . one Lord, Jesus 
Christ." These texts are very positive. They 
declare in plain, absolute terms, that the 



26 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



Father only is God. The doctrine which wc 
preach could not be asserted more strongly, 
and we ought not to be turned from our faith 
by inferences of an opposite kind which might 
be drawn from more obscure passages. 

JESUS' OWN TESTIMONY. 

The conclusion to which we have just ar 
rived is strengthened by the testimony of 
Jesus respecting himself : " I came not to do 
mine own will; lean of myself do nothing ; " 
" The Father that is in me, he doeth the 
works;" "I ascend to my Father and your 
Father; and to my God and your God." 
Who can read these words and still think 
that Jesus represents himself as the supreme 
Divinity, the independent God ? He does 
indeed, on one occasion, say, " I and my 
Father are one but that he meant a unity 
of purpose, design, and will, is evident from 
his subsequent prayer for his disciples, " That 
they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



27 



in us." And again he says, " That they may 
be one, even as we are one.*' It is possible 
then for us all to be one, in exactly the same 
sense that the words apply to the relation of 
Jesus to the Father ; and this is not simply 
a Unitarian interpretation, but is given very 
positively by John Calvin himself. 

CONFESSIONS OF FAITH. 

It is also to be noted that the earliest con- 
fessions of faith contain no reference to the 
Trinity, but are such as we Unitarians use. 
Such was the confession of Peter : " Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God;" 
and this seems to have satisfied Jesus per- 
fectly. Such, too, was the confession of Mar- 
tha : " I believe that thou art the Christ, the 
Son of God ; " and this, which we all can say, 
was deemed sufficient. The reason also 
which John gave for writing his Gospel does 
not make the slightest allusion to the doctrine 
of a Trinity ; it was simply, " That ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 



28 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



God." If, as is sometimes asserted, the fourth 
Gospel was written to prove the supreme 
divinity of Jesus, it is strange that in sum- 
ming up the book the writer does not make 
the slightest allusion to any such doctrine. 
We are willing to abide by the testimony of 
the apostles, and declare our faith in " Jesus 
of Nazareth, a man approved of God among 
you by miracles and wonders and signs, 
which God did by him in the midst of you." 
We compare our doctrine with the whole 
testimony which we have concerning the 
Saviours life and teachings, and then say, 
without any hesitation, that however difficult 
it may be to determine his precise nature 
and rank, we are fully convinced that he is 
everywhere spoken of as a separate being 
from God. 

GOD AND SATAN. 

To us, then, there is but one God. He is 
the sole ruling power in the universe, and all 
things, above and below, are forced to obey 
his will. Therefore we reject the old idea 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



29 



that any Satan divides the sovereignty of the 
universe with the Almighty, and wages cease- 
less war against Him for the possession of 
human souls. Evil spirits there are, out of 
the body as well as in, but all of them com- 
bined can no more be compared with God, 
than a single mote which floats in the sun- 
beam can be compared with this whole uni- 
verse of matter. All power belongs to One ; 
and we are persuaded, " that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, . . . nor any other creature, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God." 

THE FATHER. 

And this one God is in the truest sense a 
Father. We use that word, which Jesus so 
often employed, without any restriction what- 
ever as to its meaning. It declares that we 
not only hold to Him the relation of a creat- 
ure to the Creator, but still more that of a 
child to a parent who watches over him with 
constant tenderness and love. " As a father 



30 



ONE GOD — THE FATHER. 



pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear him." As a father wateheth over 
his children with an impartial love, so the 
Lord " maketh his sun to rise on the evil and 
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
on the unjust." As a father corrects a child's 
faults, not in anger, but mercy, so the Lord 
chastens us not for his pleasure but our profit, 
that we may be partakers of his holiness. As 
a father welcomes back a penitent child to 
the paternal home, so the Lord sees the prod- 
igal while yet he is a great way off, and has 
compassion on him, and folds him in the em- 
brace of his love. Unqualifiedly, without any 
limitations, He is the Father of the whole 
human race, and should receive the supreme 
love of our hearts, the highest service of our 
lives. 



LECTURE III. 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST % 

'XT'E believe in God, said Jesus ; and in our 
last lecture we replied, Yes, we do be- 
lieve in Him. We believe in the one being, 
who fills the whole universe with his pres- 
ence, and is the kind and loving Father of us 
all. 

Believe also in me, continued Jesus ; and 
we reply, to-day, Yes, we do believe in thee. 
We believe in the messenger who brought as- 
surance of heavenly pardon and peace ; in the 
Great Teacher, whose words, more than all 
others, have shown the ways of God to man ; 
in the well-beloved Son, through whose life 
and character are revealed those heavenly vir- 
tues which make us regard him as the bright- 
ness of the Father's glory. 



32 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 



BELIEF IN CHRIST. 

But exactly what is meant by believing in 
Christ ? It does not commit us in any way 
to the statements which others have made 
concerning him, whether in past times or the 
present It means simply that we accept him 
for just what he claims to be, whatever that 
is. It declares that we do not regard him as 
an impostor or a fanatic, as self-deceived, or 
wilfully deceiving others, but as being in real- 
ity exactly what he himself believed. It is 
possible for one to regard Christ's character 
with admiration, and put a high value upon 
his teachings, while yet thinking him to have 
been mistaken in some of his claims ; and such 
a one cannot be said to believe in him, any 
more than he believes in an ambassador whose 
credentials are forged, or in a physician whose 
skill he greatly doubts. For ourselves we use 
language in its common acceptation when we 
say that we believe in Christ, because we 
believe him to have been exactly what he 
claimed. 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 33 



CHRIST AND GOD. 

When, therefore, the question is raised 
about the nature of Jesus, we turn away from 
the creeds of the churches and simply ask, 
What did he himself claim to be ? We find 
on examination that he always claimed a pow- 
er and rank far beyond that of any other re- 
ligious teacher. There was an authority in his 
words, " I say unto you," and an assurance in 
his declaration, " my words shall not pass 
away," which no one else among the spiritual 
leaders of humanity ever assumed. You 
may modify this statement, that all power is 
given unto him in heaven and on earth, ac- 
cording to all the rules of language, and 
still it will mean something which no other 
law-giver dared say unless in moments of 
wildest fanaticism ; and the way in which he 
joined himself with the Father in the bap- 
tismal formula, has in it very great irrever- 
ence, unless it teaches some exalted position 

on his part. He calls himself the bread from 
3 



34 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 



heaven which can satisfy hungry souls ; the 
true light which shines for all who were in 
darkness ; the door through which we pass 
into the kingdom of heavenly peace. In short, 
he regarded himself as the way, the truth, and 
the life ; and while he would have us stand on 
the platform of equality, regarding each other 
simply as brethren, he bids us remember that 
we have a Master, even Christ. It is not 
strange that the Jews declared no one else 
ever spoke like him ; and should any one 
whom we know speak in this way, we should 
pronounce him guilty of gross blasphemy, or 
else the victim of complete madness. When 
we consider that these are not isolated pas- 
sages in the life of Jesus, but are so numerous 
and so closely connected with his whole biog- 
raphy that whoever strikes them out of the 
Gospels destroys the whole history, and leaves 
but an unmeaning; mass of words behind, we 
cannot resist the conviction that Jesus claimed 
a peculiar power, insight, and inspiration ; and, 
as believers in him, we admit whatever he 
claimed. 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 35 



But in believing him to have been the in- 
spired messenger of God, we nowhere find that 
he claims to be God himself. With all his 
knowledge, he did not claim to know every- 
thing, but declared there was a day and hour 
of which he was ignorant, and which his 
Father, only, knew. Great as was his power, 
he was not almighty ; for he asserted that of 
himself he could do nothing, and whatever 
strength he had was given unto him. Inti- 
mately as he was joined to the Father, he had 
a mind and will entirely distinct from that of 
God, as he shows in his words to the Jews : 
" It is also written in your law that the testi- 
mony of two men is true. I am one that bear 
witness of myself, and the Father that sent 
me beareth witness of me." Whatever, there- 
fore, be the exact nature of Jesus, all Unita- 
rians accept the literal truth of the declaration 
he made, " My Father is greater than I." 
Some of our number believe that he occupies 
an intermediate rank between God and man, 
and existed in the heavenly world before his 



86 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 

birth in Bethlehem ; but the majority, so far 
as I can learn, regard him as possessed of a 
truly human nature, which was so endowed 
with spiritual power and insight beyond any 
other, as to make him the spiritual leader of 
mankind. We speak of him, therefore, as 
one whom the Father filled with the Holy 
Spirit, instead of giving it by measure unto 
him ; and we preach to-day, what the apostles 
did of old, " Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved 
of God among you by miracles and wonders 
and signs, which God did by him in the midst 
of you." 

CHRIST AND MAN. 

The relation of Christ to the Father may 
safely be left to that future hour when all mys- 
teries shall be revealed. By and by we shall 
go to the spirit-world where we can see Jesus 
face to face, and settle, by a few short ques- 
tions and replies, the whole controversy about 
the place and time when his conscious exist- 
ence began. All that concerns us liow is the 
relation he bears to us. We turn away from 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 



37 



the idle speculations which have too long en- 
grossed the Church, to inquire what benefits 
he has conferred upon the human race, and 
whether he can truly give those who believe 
in him power to become sons of God. The 
subject might be presented in many ways; 
but, as a great many titles are usually applied 
to Jesus, I wish to show on the present oc- 
casion in what sense they can be rightly em- 
ployed. 

I. CHRIST THE GREAT TEACHER. 

We call him the Great Teacher whose 
words come with authority to the human 
mind. But we must not liken this authority 
to that of an Eastern king who makes his ar- 
bitrary will the supreme law of the land, and 
binds all men by his word, simply because it 
is his word, whether it be true or false, right 
or wrong. It is rather the authority of one 
who does not make truth, but only discerns 
it ; who does not establish new laws, but sim- 
ply proclaims those which God ordained in 



38 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 

the beginning. His authority is that of a 
guide, who has thoroughly explored the coun- 
try into which you are just venturing; of a 
pilot, who has sounded and marked every spot 
in the channels of the harbor; of a citizen, 
who has been through every street, lane, and 
alley where you might get bewildered. You 
may disregard the guide, and get lost in the 
swamps ; disregard the pilot, and wreck 
your bark on the shoals ; disregard the citi- 
zen's directions, and lose your way in the 
great metropolis : but you cannot justly pre- 
tend that your freedom has been infringed 
upon, simply because some one has told you 
the right way. Such we believe to be the 
authority of Jesus. 

II. CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 

Christ is spoken of as a mediator, and his 
ministry as a ministry of reconciliation. The 
object of a mediator is to unite those who, 
from any cause whatever, are at variance with 
each other, and therefore his precise work will 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 



39 



vary with the degree and cause of alienation 
between two parties ; for sometimes both will 
be filled with so much bitterness that they will 
equally need to be appeased, and at other 
times the guilt or folly of one will be the sole 
obstacle in the way of perfect agreement. Ac- 
cording to the creed of many churches, the 
great hindrance to pardon and peace was 
some feeling on the part of God — either an- 
ger, because his law had been broken, or a 
fear that the majesty of his law would be dis- 
honored if he forgave us as freely as he bids 
us forgive each other. But the instant you 
turn to the Bible you are told that the only 
obstacle to pardon was on the part of man. 
The separation was caused by the sins of the 
children, not the anger of the Father. He 
was always ready to forgive those who would 
repent ; and the sole work which Jesus had, 
as mediator, was to lead men to that true 
penitence where they would seek and obtain 
forgiveness. Hence the only ministry of re- 
conciliation spoken of is, that God was in 



40 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 



Christ reconciling the world to himself — not 
reconciling himself to the world ; and the 
prayer which went up from the apostle's 
heart was, that ye might be reconciled unto 
God — not that He might be reconciled to you. 
Jesus and his early followers always teach 
that whenever men come to the Father with 
true penitence and love, the reconciliation is 
complete. 

III. CHRIST OUR ATONEMENT. 

This shows us, also, what is meant by the 
atonement which we have received through 
Jesus. We often speak as though it meant 
some expiation which he made for the sins of 
the people, some penalty he paid, or some 
suffering he endured in their stead. But in 
the Bible the words atonement and reconcilia- 
tion have exactly the same meaning, and are 
translations of the same word. According to 
old English usage, atonement is simply at-one- 
ment, that is, reconciliation ; and the proof of 
this is as conclusive as it is simple. Our com- 



WHAT THINK YE OP CHRIST? 



41 



mon version of the Bible was first published 
in 1611. and if you turn to the English writers 
of that and an earlier day, you will find this 
to be the only meaning of the word we are 
now considering. Thus, Sir Thomas More 
speaks of " The late made atonement in whyche 
the king's pleasure had more place than the 
partie's willes." In Beaumont and Fletcher's 
Spanish Curate we read, " I have been aton- 
ing two most wrangling neighbors;" and in 
Othello, when Desdemona is asked, " Is there 
division 'twixt my lord and Cassio ? " she re- 
plies, " A most unhappy one ; I would do 
much t' atone them for the love I bear to 
Cassio." The translators of the Bible must 
have used words in the same sense as their 
contemporaries, and hence in speaking of the 
atonement which Jesus effected, they must 
have meant the reconciliation of man to 
God. 

IV. CHRIST THE SAVIOUR. 

The term Saviour is applied to Jesus by Uni- 
tarians as well as Trinitarians, but in a differ- 



42 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 

ent and, as we think, a truer sense. We do 
not believe that he saves us from the power of 
Satan, for we deny that any such being has 
control of human souls; we do not believe 
he saves us from the wrath of God, for we 
deny that the Father has any such feeling 
towards his children ; we do not believe that 
he saves us from all the evil consequences of 
our sins, for every one knows by observation, 
if not experience, that many of these conse- 
quences remain long after repentance and 
reformation, in spite of our tears and prayers. 
But he saves us from the sins which corrupt 
our souls and make us unfit for the life which 
now is and that which is to ■ come. We 
call him Saviour to-day, for the same reason 
^that the angel declared he should be called 
Jesus, because he shall save his people from 
their sins. 

V. CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 

But it may be asked what, according to this 
view, was the effect of Christ's suffering and 
death ? We certainly believe they had an 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 



43 



effect on us, but not upon God. The apostle, 
in speaking of the blood of Christ, does not 
hint at any influence it had upon the Father, 
but only declares that it cleanseth us from sin; 
and when Christ's death is spoken of as an 
agent in the reconciliation, the simple state- 
ment is that ice icere reconciled to God in this 
way, not that he was reconciled to us. Jesus, 
likewise, in speaking of the effect of his cruci- 
fixion, does not claim that it will make his 
Father merciful, but only says, " I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth (that is, crucified), will 
draw all men unto me." And the history of 
the Church has clearly shown, that, in all ages 
and among all nations, the sufferings and 
death of Christ have played an important 
part in bringing men to God. Not his turn- 
ing of water to wine at Cana of Galilee ; not 
his feeding the thousands by the lake side, or 
raising Mary's brother or the widow's son to 
life ; not these, or any miracles he performed, 
however wonderful, or any works, however 
great, reach the depths of our inmost hearts. 



44 WHAT THINK YE OP CHRIST? 

We turn from all he did in health and 
strength, to gaze upon the cross where he 
hangs helpless and alone. From that up- 
lifted form shines out a love which melts the 
heart and draws us all to him. When life's 
sorrows press heavily, when its temptations 
entice, its duties reprove, and its sins torment, 
we turn to Calvary, if we would learn to say, 
" Thy will be done." And when time rolls 
on, and every nation at last is filled with love 
for him, it will result, not from any teachings 
he gave or miracles he wrought, so much as 
from his patient endurance unto death, even 
the death of the cross. 

VI. CHRIST OUR HEAVENLY BROTHER. 

To sum up all, we regard Christ as our 
heavenly brother, to whom we look with a fer- 
vent love. We recognize in his teachings the 
true light which reveals the way to eterna 
life We see in him the highest revelation 
which has yet been made of the fatherhood 
of God, the brotherhood of man, and the joy- 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 



45 



ful immortality of the human soul. We are 
grateful to him for those glad tidings of great 
joy which he brought to all people; and when 
we look at the whole spirit in which his mis- 
sion was performed, we long to be classed 
among his disciples and friends. When, there- 
fore, we hear his voice saying, " Ye believe in 
God, believe also in me," we reply, with sin- 
cere hearts, We do believe in thee ; and on 
rising from this examination of all that he was, 
and said, and did, we repeat with truthful lips 
the apostle's words, " Lord, thou knowest all 
things ; thou knowest that I love thee." 



LECTURE IV. 



"THE SON OF GOD." 

TN the previous lecture, I showed the mean- 
ing which we, as Unitarians, attach to the 
various titles which are applied, in the New 
Testament, to Christ. . One of his titles, how- 
ever, is so prominent in the Gospels, that it 
deserves a special consideration. He is called 
" The Son of God ; " and I wish now to 
show, first, what is the general meaning of 
this phrase ; and, secondly, whether it had an 
unusual meaning when applied to him. 

COMMON MEANING OF THE PHRASE. 

First, then, what was the common use of 
the phrase, " Son of God," among the Jews? 

Angels were, in early times, called His 
sons, as in Gen. vi. 2, where they are said 



"THE SON OF GOD." 



47 



to have married the daughters of men, — and 
in two or three passages of the Book of Job. 
They, doubtless, gained the title from the 
great dignity of their nature, or else from 
the idea that they held a peculiarly intimate 
relation to Jehovah. This usage of the words 
is confined to the most ancient traditions, 
and does not occur once in the later Hebrew 
records. 

We next find the phrase used of the chil- 
dren of Israel collectively. Thus, in Hosea 
xi. 1 : u When Israel was a child, then I loved 
him, and called my son out of Egypt;" and 
the same writer says, " Ye are the sons of the 
living God." The prophets often spoke of 
God as the Father of the Jewish nation. 

In the New Testament, we find Christian 
believers spoken of as sons of God, from their 
spiritual regeneration. " To them gave he 
power to become sons of God " (John i. 12). 
c< Beloved, now are we the sons of God " (1 
John iii. 2). So it is throughout the Epis- 
tles, and in many parts of the Gospels. 



48 



"THE SON OF GOD." 



In certain poetic passages, God is called the 
Father of the material bodies which he has 
created ; but the correlative title, " Son of 
God," is not applied to the created thing. 
This same use of the term is found in mod- 
ern poetry also. 

According to common usage, therefore, at 
the beginning of our era, the phrase Son of 
God denoted either an Israelite, considered 
as one of the chosen people, or a Christian, 
considered as having God's spirit, and being 
dear to the heavenly Father. The idea of 
" proper filiation " — any peculiar relation, by 
birth, to the Deity — does not seem to have 
occurred to the Jewish mind ; a man's moral 
character, or his spiritual relation to the 
Deity, alone was thought of. The same use 
of language that made them call the wise 
"the children of Wisdom," and the wicked 
" the children of the Devil," would lead them 
to call the good " the children of God." All 
were, indeed, created by Jehovah, and there- 
fore, as will hereafter be shown, were, in 



" THE SON OF GOD." 



49 



a true and exalted sense, his children ; but 
only those whose characters were most ac- 
ceptable to him, were called, with peculiar 
emphasis, the sons of God. Hence, in the 
apocryphal book of Wisdom (ii. 18), it is said, 
" If the just man be the son of God, he will 
help him, and deliver him from the hand of 
his enemies." As this is one of the latest 
of Jewish writings before the time of Christ, 
it must be good authority for the use of Jew- 
ish phrases ; and it shows clearly that the 
term " sonship," when denoting any thing 
more than the relation which we all sustain 
to the Creator, referred only to character, and 
not to peculiarities of either nature or birth. 
Unless, therefore, there is reason to suppose 
that the title was applied to Jesus in an unu- 
sual sense, we must infer that he was called 
pre-eminently the son of God from his good- 
ness, purity, and spiritual life, not from any 
difference between his nature and ours. 



4 



50 



"THE SOX OF GOD." 



HOW APPLIED TO JESUS. 

\Tas, then, the title applied to Jesus in an 
unusual sense ? This is a question to be 
answered by considering the qualifying phrases 
with which the words are used. 

He was called the " only-begotten son," 
— from which some have inferred a marked 
difference, in nature, between him and our- 
selves. This would have been a just infer- 
ence if the term ;i only-begotten " had always 
kept its etymological meaning : but this was 
not so. For the corresponding Hebrew word 
occurs twelve times in the Old Testament; 
but when Jewish scholars, before the Chris- 
tian era, brought out their famous Greek ver- 
sion of that book, they translated this word 
only three times by " only-begotten," while, 
in eis:ht other cases, they translated it by 
i; loved,*' " beloved, v or some similar term. 
Now, this fact, that the same Hebrew ex- 
pression meant both "only-begotten" and 
" beloved,*' shows that these two terms were 



" THE SON OF GOD." 



51 



regarded as, in many cases, equivalent by 
those who translated the Old Testament into 
Greek. The authors of our common English 
version had the same opinion ; for they ren- 
dered the word by " dear," " beloved," or 
some such term of affection. In Psa. xxxv. 17, 
it is rendered " darling," — " Rescue my soul 
from their destruction, my darling from the 
lions." Indeed, there is one case in the New 
Testament, where the phrase cannot possibly 
mean what we do by ' ; only son ; " for it is 
written (Heb. xi. 17), " By faith Abraham, 
when he was tried, offered up Isaac : and he 
that had received the promises offered up his 
only-begotten son." But, as an historical fact, 
Isaac had an elder brother, and of course was 
not an only son ; and this name could have 
been given him only from the great affection 
his father cherished for him. 

Therefore, we believe that the term only- 
begotten son, when applied to Jesus, is sim- 
ply a term of endearment, and corresponds to 
u well-beloved son." 



52 



" THE SON OF GOD." 



The name of " first-begotten " is also ap- 
plied to him ; yet a little examination shows 
that this does not necessarily refer to time of 
birth, but rather to the estimation or favor 
in which he was held. Hence, Ex. iv. 22, says, 
" Israel is my son, even my first-born;" — not 
in point of time, surely. So Psa. lxxxix. 27, 
says of David, " I will make him my first- 
born, higher than the kings of the earth ; " 
and Jer. xxxi. 9 : " I am a father, and Ephraim 
is my first-born," — which, of course, was not 
true in the sense of priority of birth. Now, 
when we have four different " first-born sons " 
spoken of, — as Israel, David, Ephraim, and 
Jesus, — the word is clearly used to express 
only the favor in which a being is held, and 
not any peculiarity of nature or birth. 

But it is still claimed by some that Jesus 
is called God's oivn son, and that this is 
so emphatic as to show a peculiar relation 
between him and the Father of us all. Yet, 
if you examine the scriptural use of that ex- 
pression, you will find that, like the preceding 



" THE SON OF GOD." 



53 



ones, it denotes only the affection in which a 
son is held. It was even used where no real 
filial relationship existed, as where Paul called 
Timothy his " own son," and his " dearly- 
beloved son," and then writes to Titus as his 
" own son," too. But, in these cases, the re- 
lationship was purely spiritual; and hence, 
when the term is applied to Christ, we simply 
infer that he was peculiarly loved by the Fa- 
ther of us all. 

It cannot be denied that the qualifying 
words of which we have been speaking, — 
u own," " only-begotten," " first-born," — are 
sometimes used literally ; but since they are 
so often used figuratively, the mere words 
themselves afford no reason for supposing 
that Jesus is a son of God in any different 
sense from that in which all the pure and 
good are. If now we look at the circum- 
stances in which the title was applied to him, 
we shall see that it had only the common 
meaning. The beginning of John's Gospel 
implies that all Christians are sons as truly as 



54 



" THE SON OF GOD." 



Jesus was ; for it says, " But as many as re- 
ceived him, to them gave he power to become 
sons of God : which were born, not of blood, 
. . . but of God. And the word became flesh 
. . . and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the 
only-begotten of the Father." 

NathanaePs strong profession of faith in 
Jesus (John i. 49) is inconsistent with any 
idea of peculiar relationship between him and 
the Father : " Rabbi, thou art the son of 
God ; thou art the king of Israel." If the 
speaker had regarded Jesus as of the " same 
substance " with the Father, — as u very God 
of very God," — could he have addressed him 
as " Rabbi," that is, " Doctor ? " 

Again, in John x. 35, 36, Jesus makes no 
other claim to the title son of God than the 
simple fact that he is the one " whom the 
Father hath sanctified, and sent into the 
world." No difference of nature or substance 
between him and us is even alluded to by 
him. 

In opposition to all that has been said, I 



"THE SON OF GOD. 5 ' 



55 



find but one expression which gives a different 
account of the origin of the title, when ap- 
plied to Jesus. In the beginning of Luke, it 
says, " Therefore also, that holy thing which 
shall be born of thee, shall be called the son 
of God." But even if this account of his birth 
is one reason why some have called him the 
son of God, it is not the only or the com- 
mon one, and is never alluded to, subse- 
quently, by either Jesus or his apostles, in any 
of their recorded words. Moreover, no pecul- 
iar mode of birth made any difference to his 
nature ; and what Luke wrote does not con- 
flict with Paul's use of language in such 
expressions as " the man Christ Jesus." 

JESUS A SON. 

This title, then, was applied to Jesus be- 
cause his character was so acceptable to the 
Father as to make him peculiarly an object 
of divine favor and approbation. It has noth- 
ing to do with his nature. Whether he was 
a man, divinely inspired, or an angel, who 



56 



THE SON OF GOD." 



" ruled Lord of Heaven,'' before he came to 
earth, is not settled, in any way, by this name ; 
it refers solely to his character. But while 
this conclusion removes much of the mystery 
which hangs around his name, it does not 
lessen our love for him. He is still a son of 
God, possessing the pure and spotless charac- 
ter which endears him to the heavenly Father. 
We see in him a holy spirit inspiring every 
word, prompting every deed, and giving such 
a coloring to his life as to make those who 
saw him feel that he came from God, — yes, 
that he was then in the bosom of the Father. 
He still exhibits what there is divine in hu- 
manity ; and as a guide, an example, and a 
giver of spiritual life, he bestows on others the 
power to become, in the same exalted sense, 
" sons of God." 

JESU5 THE SON. 

And he is also the son of God, — not only 
one of the ideals of humanity, but the high- 
est ; not only one of the manifestations of the 



" THE SON OF GOD." 



57 



Father, but the truest and purest. All that 
is most excellent in manhood, we find in him ; 
and in him, also, we find the fullest revelation 
of God that has yet been made through the 
flesh. Rightly is he called, far above all others. 
" the son" from that character which has 
warmed some of the coldest hearts, awakened 
the most dormant affections, and quickened 
the most sluggish consciences. Well may 
those who think their ideal of excellence has 
not yet been reached, and who are looking 
for some anointed one, still to come, ask 
calmly, as did the men of old, " When the 
Christ cometh, will he do greater things than 
these ? " 



LECTURE V. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

TTNITARIANS, no less than Trinitarians, 
baptize the disciple in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spir- 
it. You have seen that by the Father we 
mean the one and only God, who created all 
things by his mighty power, and watches 
over all with perfect wisdom, mercy, and love ; 
and that by the Son we mean just what the 
apostle meant, u Jesus of Nazareth, a man 
approved of God among you by miracles and 
wonders and signs, which God did by him in 
the midst of you." It remains that I should 
show you what we mean by the Holy Spirit. 
If you noticed in previous lectures that all 
the arguments were based upon the New 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



59 



Testament, you are not to infer from that 
fact that we sanction the too common error 
of regarding the Bible as the only source of 
religious knowledge ; for while God does 
speak to us clearly through the Bible, he 
speaks also through the works of nature, and 
through the Holy Spirit he sends into our 
hearts. But because those lectures related 
almost entirely to questions about Jesus 
Christ, we were forced to confine ourselves to 
the authentic records of what he was, said, 
and did, since neither nature nor reason, ob- 
servation nor experience, can settle a matter 
of pure history. On this occasion, however, 
we have to consider a present influence, no 
less than a past fact, and must inquire, not 
only what the Bible teaches about the Holy 
Spirit, but what we know from its own oper- 
ations in our souls. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT OF THE BIBLE. 

It is claimed in the larger part of Christian 
churches, that the Holy Spirit mentioned in 



60 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



the Bible is a person equal to, but distin- 
guished from, the heavenly Father. But as 
we read the Bible, it nowhere speaks, as the 
church creeds do, of God the Spirit, but al- 
ways uses instead of that expression a far 
different one, the Spirit of God. Now the 
Spirit of God can, primarily, mean nothing 
more nor less than God himself, just as the 
spirit of man means only the man himself. 
When any one says, " My soul doth magnify 
the Lord," or, " My heart crieth out for the 
living God," we simply understand that the 
speaker does this ; and, in the same way, 
when we are told that the Spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters, we have but an- 
other form of saying that this was the act of 
God. 

While, however, this was the original mean- 
ing of the term, there soon arose a secondary 
use of it, to denote some power or energy 
which God exerted. As Dr. Eliot has clearly 
shown, " Whatever God himself does, he is 
said to do by his Spirit, or by his word, or by 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



61 



his hand, or by the breath of his mouth, all 
of which mean substantially the same thing. 
See, for example, Job xxvi. 12: 4 He divideth 
the sea with his power, and by his under- 
standing he smiteth through the proud. By 
his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his 
hand hath formed the crooked serpent.' " No 
one, it would seem, can fail to see that all the 
terms here employed are but different modes 
of declaring the exercise of divine power. 
So, when in one of the Gospels we find Jesus 
declaring that he cast out demons by the 
Spirit of God, and in another by the finger of 
God, we can rightly infer that the different 
words had the same meaning, simply to de- 
note the power of God. Our conclusion, 
therefore, is that when the Spirit is spoken of 
as a person, it means the Father himself, and 
in all other cases it denotes the spiritual in- 
fluence which the Father exerts ; and hence, 
in the solemn rite of baptism, the disciple 
declares his purpose to live as a child of the 
heavenly Father, to be a disciple of Christ, 



62 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



our heavenly brother, and to open his heart 
to the holy influence and spiritual blessings 
which the Christian faith has brought. 

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. 

We are confirmed in this view by what the 
Bible tells of spiritual gifts. It recognizes 
inspiration as one of those gifts which elevated 
Moses, Isaiah, Paul, and John above the 
great mass of mankind, and exalted Jesus to 
a far higher position still, so that even to this 
day, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, the 
wisest and holiest acknowledge him to be 
their Lord and Master. But this peculiar 
inspiration is never spoken of as the only di- 
vine gift ; if it were, how few indeed would 
be partakers of the Spirit ! When some of 
the Corinthians thought that only remarkable 
powers were given by God, Paul devoted a 
portion of his first letter to them to the cor- 
rection of that error. He said that no ex- 
traordinary gifts are needed to make one 
spiritual; for the humblest child who sin- 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



63 



cerely confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
is also acting under a divine influence. The 
power to give practical lessons in wisdom, to 
give doctrinal teachings, to speak with glow- 
ing, inspiring words, to talk in different lan- 
guages, and to tell whether what is uttered 
comes from a true or a false spirit, are all 
alike divine gifts from the same bountiful 
Giver. Thus he taught the humblest mem- 
ber of his church to feel that the Spirit of 
God resides in him, as truly as in the in- 
spired prophets and apostles. 

Bat the Bible language goes even farther 
than this. It does not regard moral and 
religious qualities as the only ones which 
have a spiritual origin, but speaks in just the 
same manner of what we call ordinary, nat- 
ural powers. If you turn to the closing part 
of Exodus xxxv., you will see that the Spirit 
of God is said to teach all manner of work- 
manship, and show a man how to work in 
gold and in silver and in brass and in the cut- 
ting of stones and in the carving of wood. It 



64 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



teaches the work of the engraver, of the em- 
broiderer, and of the weaver, " Even of them 
that do any work, and of those that devise 
cunning work." Passages like these prove 
most clearly that the Bible recognizes no nat- 
ural gifts except those which God confers, 
and they enforce the conclusion before arrived 
at, that the Holy Spirit is not a separate per- 
son from the Father, but only the spiritual 
influence which he exerts. 

PROMISE OF THE COMFORTER. 

While there is thus a divine influence 
poured out upon the whole world, Jesus 
promised his disciples some special spiritual 
help after he should be taken from their sight. 
They should receive, he said, another Com- 
forter who should abide with them, not for a 
few short years as he had done, but for ever. 
It was to be a peculiar, spiritual influence 
from the Father, which should show them 
the meaning of many things which Jesus did 
and which they at the time failed to under- 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



65 



stand ; should teach them the many things 
which he had wished to impart but they were 
not able to bear ; should explain to them, as 
he said, the things that were to come, allud- 
ing to his own death and resurrection ; and, 
in short, should guide them into the real 
meaning of the religion he had proclaimed. 

THE PROMISE FULFILLED. 

And this promise has been fulfilled. Ex- 
plain it as we will, or leave it without ex- 
planation, the fact yet remains that the true 
followers of Jesus have felt this spiritual in- 
fluence of which he spoke, as none others 
have in the history of the world. They have 
been inspired, comforted, and guided by it, 
exactly as he promised, and felt that God was 
indeed dwelling within them. This Spirit 
has been their teacher. It has brought to 
every new generation a more complete under- 
standing of the Christian faith, and shown 
higher meaning in the gospel words, so that 

we, to-day, know better what Christianity is, 
5 



66 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



and what power it has over human hearts, 
than did those early disciples who gathered 
round the Master. This Spirit has been the 
great Comforter of the human soul. It is 
never easy to tell how "joy comes, grief 
goes ; " but that, the more sincerely we live 
as disciples of Jesus, so much the more pa- 
tience we have in times of trial, the more 
strength to stand up under our burdens, the 
more inward peace, even in the midst of out- 
ward misfortunes, is a fact which cannot be 
denied even by those who fail to explain it. 
Then, too, what an inspiration this Spirit has 
been ! How strong it has made men for 
every sacrifice that could be demanded, so 
that no journey has been so long, no conflict 
so severe, no danger so great, as to keep them 
from their heaven-appointed work. And this 
spiritual influence, which does so much to 
purify every believing heart, has made its 
power felt on every side, so that the world 
has been lifted up, and we dwell on a higher 
plane, nearer God and heaven, because the 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



67 



promise has been fulfilled that he would 
send another Comforter. We rejoice in be- 
lieving that God is present in all ages and 
among all people ; yet we cannot help ac- 
knowledging that his power is felt so much 
more in Christianity, as to make it true that 
the Holy Spirit came through Jesus Christ. 

THE ESSENTIAL DOCTRINE. 

Here, then, is our doctrine of the Holy 
Spirit. We are not the children of a far-off 
God, who, having created and peopled this 
earth, withdrew to a distant heaven beyond 
all thought or care for what he made ; but he 
is still, as at the beginning, the Light and 
Life of the universe, and every thing we see 
is simply the manifestation of his will. Now 
what Unitarians teach is, that the same God 
who is without us is also within us, and that 
his presence is no more felt among the works 
of nature than in the soul of man. He it is 
from whom good thoughts and holy desires 
proceed, since it is the Spirit of the Lord rest- 



68 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



ing upon a man which gives him " the spirit 
of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of 
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge 
and of the fear of the Lord." How often when 
we have been filled with perplexing doubts 
* about the choice we should make in life, and 
a thick, heavy cloud has settled over our path- 
way, hiding every thing from our sight, so that 
even our most earnest, anxious thought could 
not answer our questions or settle our doubts, 
has a heavenly light suddenly shone around 
us, a perfect peace come into our souls, and 
every thing been made clear before our eyes ! 
This we felt to be the gift of our Father's 
Spirit. Then there have been times when 
some great trial awaited us, to which we 
looked forward with gloomy forebodings as 
something we could not possibly endure, a day 
of sorrow which we could not see and live. 
And as the day drew near, and our anguish 
and fears kept increasing, and we prayed that 
if it was possible the cup might pass from us, 
yet all the while asking to be resigned to his 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



69 



will, — all at once the pain was over, every 
fear left us, and we waited what was to come 
with the fullest confidence of a loving child. 
This, also, we knew came from the Spirit of 
God. In our highest joy and deepest grief, 
our humblest penitence and holiest aspirations, 
we recognize this spiritual influence which he 
exerts. 

" He is with us, now and ever, 
When we call upon his name, 
Aiding every good endeavor, 
Guiding every upward aim." 

THE LESSON OF THE HOUR. 

There is no scepticism so sad to witness, as 
scepticism about the present power of the 
Holy Spirit to take hold of human hearts, and 
make the man of to-day, in very truth, a man 
of God. It is a great misfortune when one 
cannot believe that holy men of old spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Spirit ; when 
he can look at prophets or apostles, and not 
feel sure that they had a divine Helper who 



70 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



made their lives full of strength for men of 
many generations; a great — who can tell 
how great ? — misfortune to look upon him 
of Nazareth, and see only a fanatic or impos- 
tor, instead of the well-beloved Son who gives 
life to every soul that comes to him. But to 
believe all this, and yet doubt God's actual 
presence to-day, is a far sadder scepticism, 
and blinds the soul still more completely to 
the realities of earth and heaven. To believe 
he was with past generations, but is not with 
the present ; to believe that he spoke at sun- 
dry times and in divers manners to the fathers, 
but not once, in any way, to their children ; 
to believe that he talked through Moses and 
Isaiah, Paul and John, but has not broken the 
silence of the last eighteen hundred years, even 
to speak through Luther or Calvin, Wesley 
or Channing; to believe that he once sent 
angels to the suffering and sorrowing to min- 
ister unto them, but that now there 

" Come not spirits from the realms of glory 
To visit earth as in the days of old, 
The times of sacred writ and ancient story " — 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 71 

this is the scepticism which makes earth a 
desert, man an orphan, and human life a 
hopeless wandering away from God and 
heaven. 

Such unbelief has no sanction in Christian- 
ity. However much fuller the measure of 
divine Spirit which was granted to some of 
olden times than to any of to-day, the promise 
is still true that a Holy Spirit will abide with 
pure hearts evermore. If any one fails to re- 
ceive it, it will not be because the Father does 
not offer the gift, but because the child has 
allowed the avenues of his soul to be so ob- 
structed that the blessing cannot enter. Only 
open your hearts to receive it, and this rich 
blessing will come to you from above and 
abide in you throughout your unending life. 



LECTURE VI. 



"WHAT IS MAN?" 

"O ELIGION consists in love to God and 
man. It is the tie which binds us to- 
gether as members of the great family in 
heaven and earth, whereof God is the Father, 
and we, his children, are all brethren. It is 
evident, therefore, that our religion will vary 
with the different ideas which we form of God 
and man ; since the bare possibility of loving 
any being depends upon his possessing some 
lovable qualities. Accordingly I have, in pre- 
vious lectures, shown you the basis of our 
love for God, in that he is a kind and merci- 
ful Father, who eighteen centuries ago sent 
Jesus, our heavenly brother, to lead men 
away from their" sins, and to-day sends his 
Holy Spirit into every open heart to bring 
us all to holiness and heaven. 



" WHAT IS MAN ? " 



73 



On the present occasion, I wish to show the 
ground of our love for man. It is an impor- 
tant subject, because the idea which you hon- 
estly entertain concerning it will influence 
your whole course of action. Men do not 
spend their days in washing the river sands, 
when they have not even a hope of finding 
some grains of pure gold ; they do not raise 
mills to crush the mountain quartz, unless 
some vein of the precious metal, however 
fine, is seen running through the stone : so 
no one ever labored zealously for the welfare 
of mankind if, in spite of his creed, he did not 
believe some germs of virtue yet remained in 
human nature ; and just in so far as any the- 
ology represents this nature as unworthy our 
regard, it is a stumbling-block in the way of 
true religion. 

MAN, THE SON OF GOD. 

Our Unitarian faith agrees with the Apostle 
Paul's, in declaring, that " The Spirit itself," 
— God's Holy Spirit which in times of devout 



74 



" WHAT IS MAN? " 



meditation is felt stirring in the heart, — this 
K Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit," 
enforces the conviction of our own soul, " that 
we are the children of God." The longings to 
be connected intimately with the Lifinite are 
not vain and selfish ; they do not pervade the 
heart in hours of worldliness and pride ; they 
are the strongest when our souls are the best. 
When we have thought most seriously, and 
prayed most earnestly, and labored most de- 
votedly, then is the conviction the most pow- 
erful within us that we are heirs of heaven. 
The Fathers Spirit adds its testimony then to 
that of our own heart, that we are children of 
God. 

Yet many fear to trust these spiritual teach- 
ings. They never doubt their senses, the 
lowest part of their nature ; they believe the 
conclusions of their reasoning powers, the 
next higher part of their being : but the soul, 
the highest of all, is regarded with mistrust. 
Spiritual insight they will not confide in for 
guidance ; spiritual yearnings they will not 



" WHAT IS MAN ? " 



75 



regard as signs of truth. The soul's own 
conviction of its origin and destiny is thrust 
one side, and hence numerous libels on human 
nature have crept into the popular creeds. 

LIBELS ON HUMAN NATURE. 

Look, for example, at the different answers 
given to the question, " What is man?" 

" Man," says one, " is a child of Adam. He 
inherits the guilt of his c Federal Head,' who, 
by taking the fruit of a forbidden tree, brought 
death into the world and all our woe. As 
his children, we are all justly liable to eternal 
punishment." Not so. " Ye are my sons and 
daughters," saith the Lord. 

" Man," says another, " is a child of Satan. 
He inherits his father's vices, and, like him, is 
totally depraved, — utterly opposed to good- 
ness, truth, and virtue. His garment of right- 
eousness is nothing but filthy rags in the sight 
of Heaven ; his prayers are an abomination ; 
his best deeds only an offence. The anger 
of God is kindled against him, and were it 



76 



" WHAT IS MAN ?" 



not for divine forbearance, he would instantly 
be consumed." — " Not so," says the Spirit; 
" ye are the sons and daughters of the living 
God." 

Yet still another says : " Man is a worm of 
the dust, a frail child of mortality. Toil and 
trouble he inherits from the past; vanity and 
vexation of spirit he bequeaths to posterity, 
and passes through a lonely vale of tears to 
reach a resting-place in the grave." — " O no," 
says the spirit of man, and the Holy Spirit 
enforces the assertion, "we are the children of 
God ; and if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, 
and joint-heirs with Christ." 

There you have the voice of man, speak- 
ing through human creeds, and the voice of 
God speaking through human souls. Which 
will you believe ? Our souls can have but 
one Father ; with which will you claim rela- 
tionship ? 



" WHAT IS MAN ?" 



77 



" ALL SOULS ARE MINE." 

How hard men find it to believe the voice 
which says, " All souls are mine ! " They try- 
to limit the assertion in some way. In a 
spirit of exclusiveness, they separate humanity 
into Christians and Infidels, and speak of the 
former only as children of God ; as though 
the many mansions are not large enough to 
hold the whole race, or the divine love not 
great enough to embrace all. But still the 
Lord's voice in the heart repeats what he 
spoke through his Prophet of old, " Behold, 
all souls are mine." Yes, all. All worship- 
pers are his, whether in churches, groves, or 
temples ; all men, oppressors and oppressed, 
good and bad; all women, whether Madon- 
nas or Magdalens ; all children, in whatever 
land or condition of life they are born, and 
whether baptized with water by a Christian 
minister, or blessed simply by the holiest bap- 
tism of all, a mother's kisses and tears. Ev- 
ery soul belongs to him, because he creates, 
nurtures, and redeems it. 



78 



" WHAT IS MAN ? " 



I. god's, BY CREATION. 

We are children of God by creation. Hence, 
in infancy, we are peculiarly his. In maturer 
years, we mar both soul and body through 
an abuse of our free-will ; and theologians, 
looking at the wreck of beauty, virtue, and 
manhood, say, " See the depravity of human 
nature," whereas they should say, " See the 
depraved character of man." From this con- 
founding of nature and character comes much 
of the misunderstanding between the churches. 
The two words have in reality very different 
meanings. The nature is what God gave 
us ; the character is what we make for our- 
selves. Neither praise nor blame can we 
deserve for the former. It is simply our inher- 
itance from the past, the portion of our Father's 
goods that fell to our lot. But for the char- 
acter we are rightly held responsible, since 
it is the result of our voluntary lives. Every 
word, therefore, uttered against any one's 
character is simply directed against the man 



" WHAT IS MAN ?" 



79 



himself ; but every thing said against human 
nature is a casting of reproach on him who 
created that nature, and then pronounced it 
good. 

Whatever be our answer to the question, 
" What is man ? " we should at least observe 
the Golden Rule, and pass no judgment on 
other people's children which we would not 
wish passed on our own. Let all theories of 
human nature be tested by the experience of 
home. When God intrusts to your charge a 
darling child, a soul he has just made; when 
you bend over its cradle, to watch the smile 
which makes you think it is dreaming of an- 
gels ; or when it first learns to clasp the hands, 
and say, " Our Father," then say whether it 
is a child of Adam, of Satan, of wrath, or a 
child of God. Clasp it to your breast, mother, 
and between your kisses repeat the articles 
of your creed. If your voice falter, and your 
heart loathe the words of your lips, be sure 
your lips are not speaking the truth. The 
judgment of the heart is worth more than 



80 



" WHAT IS MAN? 95 



that of the head. Those words only are true 
which can be repeated gladly and lovingly, as 
you hold a son or daughter, brother or sister, 
in your arms; such words as the Saviour's, 
" Suffer little children to come unto me ; " 
such words as the Father's, " All souls are 
mine ; " such words as the Holy Spirit speaks 
through the soul, " Ye are the children of God." 

ii. god's, by education. 

We are children of God because nurtured 
by him. It is true that by the laws of our 
being we are affected by the virtues and the 
vices of former generations, so that holy men 
who have lived, make our road to holiness 
easier, and the sinful men of the past make 
us far more prone to yield to temptation ; and 
in this way there is a connecting link between 
Adam's sin and ours. The common theory 
of the " fall," however, presupposes that 
Adam and Eve were, by nature, different 
beings from ourselves, and that every thing 
has been changed since their sin was com- 



" WHAT IS MAN ? " 



81 



mitted. But the Bible gives no reason for 
believing the first human beings to have been 
different from the present race. Adam and 
Eve yielded, we are told, to their first tempta- 
tion ; did any of their descendants ever do 
worse ? Why does it show the depravity of 
a fallen nature that you committed your first 
sin, when these, who are always called per- 
fect, committed the only sin which lay in 
their power? No one can show more weak- 
ness in the time of temptation than these 
dwellers in Eden, and there is no reason for 
thinking their natures were different from 
ours, or were any more under the fostering 
care of God. 

We start in life, like our ancestors, with 
powers and capacities to be trained and en- 
larged; and God has so arranged the disci- 
pline of life, that even our mistakes teach us 
wisdom, and our failures help us rise. Stum- 
blings and falls, while we are learning to walk, 
are but lessons of caution and wisdom, not 

signs of a depraved physical nature ; and our 
6 



82 



" WHAT IS MAN ? " 



moral stumblings, while learning truth and 
duty, are to be regarded in the same light as 
the tripping of the feet. A child makes mis- 
takes while learning to read and spell every 
word in the Bible ; why should you be sur- 
prised that it makes some in learning to prac- 
tise the duties spoken of in that large book ? 
He hesitates on first pronouncing such words 
as " veracity," " obedience," or " integrity ; " 
why is it strange that conscience hesitates in 
the same way ? All parts of our nature hes- 
itate, stumble, or fall in the course of their 
training; and yet all, as was shown in the 
last lecture, are subjects of God's watchful 
care, as expressed through his constant laws 
and daily bounties. 

in. god's, by redemption. 

We are God's children because redeemed 
by him from our sins. As this will be pre- 
sented more fully in subsequent lectures, I 
shall only state here what I hope to prove 
there. While denying the total depravity of 



" WHAT IS MAN ? " 



83 



human nature, we assert the actual depravity 
of man's character, and therefore his need of 
redemption. Salvation, we believe, consists 
in restoring the soul to virtue, healing the 
spiritual infirmities. As a skilful physician 
saves our bodies by removing the disease, so 
the Physician of Souls saves us by removing 
vice and all evil habits. It is not salvation 
from either present or future suffering that 
we seek ; for if the cup of sorrow may not 
pass unless we drink it, His will be done. It 
is not the wrath of God which we wish to 
escape ; we do not believe he ever has such 
a feeling towards his children. We desire 
salvation from our sins ; from the gross appe- 
tites which enslave us ; from the chains of 
evil habits ; from the power of sinful passions ; 
from weaknesses and wanderings, spiritual 
blindness and coldness of heart: from all 
these we pray to be redeemed, and from all 
these God will redeem us in his own time 
and way. His omnipotence is pledged to our 
support. We shall surely succeed in rooting 



84 



" WHAT IS MAN ? " 



out evil, because he is with us. And because 
we believe that every prodigal will at last 
return, and seek and obtain forgiveness, we 
say that by redemption, no less than by crea- 
tion, all souls are God's. 

FILIAL OBLIGATIONS. 

Not in pride do we assert this relationship, 
and claim our " Birthright," but in humble 
thanksgiving. How mean and trivial the past 
life seems, when our high nature and destiny 
are thought of. All this grovelling in the dust, 
this wallowing in the mire of sensuality, all 
the meanness and folly of life, — how unwor- 
thy of one who has a heavenly origin, and 
is called to a heavenly home. It might do 
for a nature hopelessly fallen, or for a child 
of mortality, an heir of the grave ; but how 
far beneath those to whom the Spirit has said, 
" Ye are the children of God." 

b{ I therefore . . . beseech you that ye walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
called." 



LECTURE VII. 

THE UNQUENCHABLE EIRE. 

rpHE Gehenna, or hell, of the early Jews 
means literally the " Valley of Hinnom." 
It was once used by the worshippers of Mo- 
loch as a place for burning infants to appease 
their god ; and after the suppression of this 
idolatry it received the refuse of the city, which 
would burn until every thing combustible about 
it had been consumed. Because the fires were 
kept up constantly, by being fed with new 
materials every day, the valley became in later 
ages a symbol of the punishment of the wick- 
ed, as being a place where the worm dieth not 
and the fire is not quenched, and the smoke 
ascends for ever and ever. Material flames 
cannot, indeed, burn up a spiritual body, but 
they can help us understand the sharp, terrible 
punishment which follows the commission of 



86 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



sin, — a punishment so severe that it has for 
centuries been called an " everlasting burn- 
ing." 

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT UNSCRIPTURAL. 

Yet, while using this popular language, we 
must remember that the Bible nowhere teaches 
that the punishment of the wicked never 
comes to an end. It calls the fire " unquench- 
able," which means that it will not go out 
until it has consumed all the combustible 
materials in its reach. John the Baptist, who 
used the word, was referring to the flames 
which burned up the chaff at the harvest sea- 
son, — flames which were not eternal, for they 
lasted only a few hours, but were unquench- 
able in the sense of not dying out until the 
chaff was completely burned up. So Josephus 
called the altar-fires of the Jews " always un- 
quenchable," although at the time he wrote 
altar and temple had both been destroyed. 

But Jesus calls the fire " everlasting ! " So 
the Bible calls the hills everlasting, though 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



87 



they will be worn away and will come to an 
end. The Levitical priesthood was called 
everlasting, but it did not continue more than 
1500 years. The temple had " everlasting 
doors," but they were destroyed six centuries 
before Christ, having been in existence about 
400 years. Therefore you cannot infer the 
never-ending misery of sinners from the words 
" everlasting fire," when the same Bible ap- 
plies the term everlasting to objects which 
survived the lapse of only a few centuries. 
Long duration is denoted by the word, but 
not always or necessarily what we mean by 
the phrase " never-ending." 

Yet in the gospel use of words, eternal or 
everlasting has more reference to the quality 
of joy and sorrow than to mere length of time. 
The " eternal life " which comes from know- 
ing God and Christ is not the immortal exist- 
ence which everybody has, but the spiritual 
life, joy, and blessedness which are given to 
the pure and holy. So we enter into eternal 
life now, by sharing in the gospel privileges 



88 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



and blessings. On the other hand, in the 
judgment scene recorded by Matthew, the 
" everlasting " character of the punishment 
refers more to its quality than its duration ; 
and it means, in popular language, spiritual 
misery, privation, and the failure to gain 
Christian blessedness. 

But the smoke of their torment ascends " for 
ever and ever ! " Turn to your Bible again 
to see how long that meant to a Jew. The 
Hebrews were told that they might keep the 
heathen as their bondmen for ever ; but for 
much of the past 1800 years they have been 
slaves themselves, instead of the owners of 
slaves. Again, the land of Canaan was prom- 
ised to them for an " everlasting possession " 
which they should hold " for ever and ever." 
No language about the duration of punish- 
ment is stronger than this ; and yet this a ever- 
lasting," this "for ever and ever," amounted to 
less than 1500 years ! Now since Jesus and 
his apostles must have used common words 
in the common way, you cannot infer from 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 89 



these terms in the New Testament that pun- 
ishment never comes to an end. 

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT UNREASONABLE. 

If the doctrine of unending misery cannot 
be supported by scriptural phrases, it cannot 
be proved at all. Reason and conscience al- 
ways reject it ; partly because the excessive 
pain is opposed to God's goodness, and partly 
because it impeaches his wisdom to say, that 
all his discipline fails in the end to bring 
about a reformation. You call it a heavy cen- 
sure on some of our prison systems, that they 
send a criminal out no better than he came 
in; and what will you say to the common 
theory of " hell fire," which declares that no 
one is ever made better by it, or ever comes 
out of it a law-loving, law-abiding subject of 
the heavenly King? It represents future 
pain as inflicted without doing any good, or 
even being designed to do it, and therefore it 
is opposed to both reason and conscience. 



90 THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



THIS FIRE A REALITY. 

Yet no figure of speech ever expressed a 
greater truth than these which represent the 
terrible punishments of sin as everlasting 
flames. They teach the solemn warning that 
all evil in the soul will be consumed by fiery 
trials and afflictions. The flames once kin- 
dled in the breast by the varied discipline of 
life will not expire till all the dross has been 
consumed, and nothing but the pure gold of 
truth and holiness remains. For a man can- 
not escape the judgments of Heaven; he can- 
not drown the fires of remorse, or escape his 
terrible heart-burnings, until he throws away, 
utterly and for ever, the sins which add fuel to 
the flames, and becomes in character, as he is 
by creation, a child of God. So long as he 
persists in guilty thoughts and deeds, he is in 
danger of suffering the sure misery which 
awaits all sin ; or, as Jesus said, " he is in dan- 
ger of hell fire." 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



91 



FIRES, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 

In denying that punishment is unending, 
we by no means deny that it reaches into the 
future life. How long it may continue in 
that spirit world, if we pass impenitent from 
this, no one can estimate ; all that we know is 
that it will be long enough and severe enough 
to produce the reformation of the soul. If 
hundreds of years are required for this ; if the 
soul must be agitated by remorse till long after 
the earth has ceased to exist, before it will ac- 
knowledge the Father's sovereign will, both 
mercy and justice would unite to impose that 
length of discipline. For the mercy of God, 
no less than his justice, leads him to punish 
sin in this world and the next, for days and 
for years, until the sin has been destroyed 
and the immortal soul is purified by its fiery 
affliction. 

USE OF THESE FIRES. 

What Jesus called the fires of hell are kin- 
dled, not to destroy souls but to save them ; 



92 THE UNQUENCHABLE FIEE. 



not to consume the sinner, but to burn up his 
sin. Whether in this or the spirit life, our 
Father aims to reform the erring by either 
winning or driving them back from forbidden 
paths ; and the most loving discipline ever in- 
flicted by a tender-hearted mother on a way- 
ward child falls far short of the wisdom, mercy, 
and love with which God inflicts the penalties 
of his violated laws. 

And this is the undertone of the Bible ut- 
terances respecting the penalties of sin. All 
the miseries brought on the Prodigal Son are 
to bring him to himself, that he may arise and 
go to his father. All the chastenings of God 
are sent, not for his pleasure, but our profit, 
that we may be partakers of his holiness ; and 
though his chastening is grievous at the time, 
it afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruits of 
righteousness. It is good for a man to be 
afflicted, that he may learn God's statutes ; 
since thus the affliction, which in comparison 
with the whole of life is but for a moment, 
works out for us a far more exceeding and 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 93 

eternal weight of glory. It is true that many 
passages speak only of the certainty and se- 
verity of punishment without mentioning its 
use ; but the long list of passages which are 
like the few above quoted, force us to believe 
that the use of punishment is always the 
same, and that God's corrections are all de- 
signed to correct his children and make them 
pure and holy. He who sits as a " refiner of 
silver," places us in the hottest furnace of af- 
fliction, that he may burn away all impurities 
and make us fit to dwell with the holy angels. 

SALVATION OF ALL. 

From these uses of the purifying flames, it 
follows that every human being will finally 
become holy. If it is, indeed, the object of 
God's corrections to make us correct, of his 
chastenings to make us chaste, of his affliction 
to drive us back from evil, he will certainly 
accomplish his design ; for who can thwart 
his plans ? Even the free-will of man is sub- 
ject to surrounding influences, and must yield 



94 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



to some one of the infinite forms and infinite 
degrees of divine discipline. Therefore in re- 
jecting our belief in the final holiness, i.e., sal- 
vation, of every human being, you must make 
one of these charges against the Almighty ; 
either, he can save all, but will not; or he 
would like to save all, but cannot ; or he 
neither can nor will. For our part, we believe 
that God wills to have all men turn unto him 
and live, and that his will is to be done. 

These teachings of reason are but repeti- 
tions of what Jesus and his apostles taught 
about the future of mankind. Accepting most 
fully their statements concerning the mis- 
ery caused by sin, we yet find everywhere 
glimpses of a future still more remote, when 
these fires shall cease, and hell itself be de- 
stroyed, because its work is done. So we 
look forward in full assurance of faith to the 
time when he, who will have all men to be 
saved, shall finish his work ; the time when he 
who has been lifted up will draw all men, with- 
out any exception, to him ; the time when all 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



95 



who are spiritually dead in sin shall be made 
alive in Christ ; the time when the Son, hav- 
ing subdued all things, shall deliver up the 
kingdom to the Father that God may be all 
in all ; the time when all the world shall, like 
" all Israel/' be saved ; the time when every 
one shall know, what many have thus far 
failed to see, that Christianity has brought 
good tidings of great joy to all people. 

OBJECTION TO THIS DOCTRINE. 

But it is said, " So you believe a murderer 
enters heaven as readily as the purest saint. 5 ' 
Our reply is, No, not while he is a murderer. 
No sinful soul enters heaven so long as it re- 
mains sinful. But there is not the slightest 
foundation for the doctrine that " after death 
there is no repentance." God's mercy does 
not stop at the grave ; and wherever, on earth 
or in the spirit world, a man turns to the 
Father in penitence and love, he enters into 
the blessedness prepared for the children of 
God. 



96 THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



LESSON OF THE HOUR. 

Yet let no one forget the certainty and se- 
verity of divine punishment in these specula- 
tions about its length. There is a fearful 
reality in Jesus' words about the " danger of 
hell fire." The Emperor Nero besmeared the 
bodies of early Christians with pitch, and set 
them on fire, that they might serve as living 
torches to illumine the night. Even heathen 
writers rebuked him for his inhumanity ; but 
was he any more inhuman than those of us 
who besmear our souls with all that can defile, 
though we know that a fire shall at last be 
kindled there, which no tears can quench until 
all the evil is destroyed ? Was he worse than 
you, my brother, if you have stored the cham- 
bers of your imagery with unholy pictures 
whose poisonous colors must one day be 
burned out, even though it sear the soul like 
the burning of red-hot iron ? Or was he worse 
than you, mother or sister, if instead of the 
solid gold of truth which no fire can touch, 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



97 



you store your treasure-house with idle con- 
ceits and vain follies which shall at last be 
consumed by the flames ? You remember 
the tears which were shed for a young girl, 
over the lace covering of whose beautiful form 
the flames in an instant spread, and she could 
only writhe in pain, and moan and die. But 
how much more to be pitied is one whose 
soul has coverings equally light and frail, 
which will burn with greater fury and cause 
a greater anguish in the day when conscience 
shall awake from its slumber and kindle the 
fires of remorse for a wasted, misspent life ! 

OUR TRIBULATIONS. 

Yet, with this warning, take encourage- 
ment, also, from the thought that a wise 
Father will appoint such trials for his chil- 
dren as shall at last make them perfect 
through that which they suffer. Therefore 
the noblest souls are they who have passed 
through great tribulation, and now stand 
chastened before God. And that one word 



98 



TEE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



"tribulation," as Dean Trench has shown, 
expresses the true uses of both present and 
future punishment. For the " tribulum," he 
says, was the Roman flail, and " tribulatio " 
the sturdy blows which separated the chaff 
from the wheat ; and hence our tribulations 
are the means by which God would tear the 
perishable chaff of sin from our immortal 
souls. In that one word a whole volume of 
truth is contained ; and if from this discus- 
sion you carry away only the true meaning 
of " tribulation," and learn to interpret your 
own tribulations by that meaning, this even- 
ing will not have been spent in vain. 

" For till the bruising flails of God's corrections 
Have thrashed out of us our vain affections ; 
Till those corruptions which do misbecome us, 
Are by thy Holy Spirit winnowed from us ; 
Until from us the straw of worldly treasures, 
Till all the dusty chaff of empty pleasures, 
Yea, till his flail upon us he doth lay 
To thrash the husk of this our flesh away, 
And leave the soul uncovered ; nay, yet more, 
Till God shall make our very spirit poor, 
We shall not up to highest wealth aspire ; 
But then we shall, and that is my desire. " 



THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



99 



NOTE. 

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN. 

In answer to all arguments, it is claimed by some that, 
as a simple matter of fact, the gospel declares that cer- 
tain Pharisees committed an " unpardonable sin," and 
therefore can never be saved. Yet Jesus did not teach 
that even those Pharisees will fail to receive forgiveness 
at the last. To show their great guilt, and the great 
difficulty they would find in being reconciled to God, he 
said, " "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of 
man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever speaketh 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, 
neither in this world, neither in the world to come." 
He meant exactly what we do by calling any one 66 in- 
corrigible," which is never to be taken literally, as im- 
plying that he cannot possibly be corrected, but only 
as showing how faint hopes we have of making him 
better. 

You are to understand these words of his as you do 
his other expressions of the same kind. In John vi. 27, 
he says, "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but 
for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." He 
meant that we should labor for both, but especially for 
the latter. So in Luke xiv. 12, he says, that when you 
give a dinner or supper party, you must never ask your 



100 THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 



friends or relations, but the poor, lame, and blind. Al- 
most every Xew England family breaks the letter of the 
precept on Thanksgiving day, and the rest of the Chris- 
tian world break it at Christmas. But. evidently, the 
Master meant that charity to the needy is a higher vir- 
tue than simply the entertainment of friends. 

Xow Jesus uses this same idiom, to say, that whoever 
blasphemes against the Holy Ghost Trill find it harder to 
obtain forgiveness than if he committed any other sin. 
The difficulty does not come from God's unwillingness 
to pardon, but from the hardened state of heart which 
will make such a man among the very last to repent and 
ask forgiveness. Jesus, therefore, did not teach that 
there is an unpardonable sin, any more than he taught 
that you must not labor for daily bread, and must not 
invite your friends to your table. He simply meant 
that there is one sin far harder to repent of than all the 
rest. 



LECTUEE VIII. 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 

JESUS spoke of a day of judgment at the 
end of the world, when he should once 
more come to the earth. What did he mean ? 

HIS OWN PREDICTIONS. 

There are eleven passages in which Jesus 
alludes to his second coming, and they show 
conclusively that what he refers to was to take 
place eighteen centuries ago. 

On sending out the twelve to preach, he 
said, " Ye shall not have gone over the cities 
of Israel till the Son of man be come." 
(Matt x.) Palestine was a small country, 
and it would not take them Ions: to visit all 
its cities. 

" The Son of man shall come in the glory 
of his Father with his angels, and then shall 



102 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 

he reward every man according to his works. 
Verily I say unto you, there be some standing 
here who shall not taste of death till they see 
the Son of man coming in his kingdom." 
( Matt, xvi., Mark ix., Luke ix.) His coming 
was to be in the lifetime of some of his 
audience. 

" This generation shall not pass away till 
all these things be fulfilled." (Matt, xxiv., 
Mark xiii., Luke xxi.) Therefore he cannot 
have meant any thing which is yet to take 
place. - 

" Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man 
sitting on the right hand of power, and com- 
ing in the clouds of heaven." (Matt, xxvi., 
Mark xiv.) 

" And when he was demanded of the Phar- 
isees when the kingdom of God should come, 
he answered and said, The kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation. Neither shall 
they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for behold, 
the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 
xvii.) 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 103 

In speaking to Peter about John, Jesus 
said, " If I will that he tarry till I come, what 
is that to thee ? " (John xxi.) The second 
coming was therefore to take place in the life- 
time of John, and is not to be looked for 
either in or after our day. 

Leaving out parallel passages, I find only 
six occasions on which Jesus alluded to an- 
other " coming ; " and on four of those he 
fixed the time to that generation, while on 
the other two he did not fix any time at all. 
The inference is therefore irresistible, that the 
event to which he referred was to take place 
while some of his hearers were still alive. If 
you think that second coming has not yet 
taken place, you must also think that he was 
greatly mistaken as to the time. 

APOSTOLIC PREDICTIONS. 

We are confirmed in the above conclusion 
by the acknowledged fact that the apostles 
were always looking for the speedy coming 
of their Lord. Paul wrote to the Romans, 



104 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



" It is high time to awaken out of sleep. The 
night is far spent, the day is at hand ; " and 
to the Philippians he said, " The Lord is at 
hand." James wrote to the churches, " The 
coming of the Lord draweth nigh ; " while the 
unknown author of the Epistle to the He- 
brews declared, " Yet a little while, and he 
that shall come will come, and will not tarry." 
The Book of Revelation, also, from which so 
many descriptions of the judgment are taken, 
says over and over again, that the events of 
which it speaks are about to take place at the 
time its author is writing. The very opening 
of the book declares that it is showing " things 
which must shortly come to pass. . . . Blessed 
is he that'readeth, for the time is at hand ; " 
and the closing chapter is in the same strain : 
" Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this 
book, for the time is at hand. . . . He who 
testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
quickly." 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



105 



"JUDGMENT TO COME." 

A correct translation of such phrases as 
"judgment to come," or "wrath to come," 
would also show that the speakers were not 
referring to a distant event which has not yet 
taken place, but to something which they re- 
garded as close at hand. The word trans- 
lated "to come " is the very same one that 
Luke uses, to say that the centurion's servant 
was ready to die ; and it is used by John, 
when he tells us that the nobleman's son was 
at the point of death. The modifying word 
is the same in all those cases ; and Felix, 
therefore, trembled in view of a judgment 
which was on the point of taking place ; and 
the Pharisees fled from an " impending wrath," 
one which was close at hand ! That is the 
precise meaning of the original, and it justi- 
fies us in saying that the idea of a distant 
day, on which the whole race is to be judged, 
is not even alluded to in the Bible. 



106 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



4> END OF THE WORLD." 

But did not Jesus say there would be an 
end of the world, and his second coming 
would take place then? Yes: our English 
Bibles read so ; but that expression does not 
mean the i; destruction of the earth," for Jesus 
declared, in almost the same breath, that he 
was referring to something which should take 
place in the lifetime of his hearers. When 
(Matt, xxiv.) he was asked the signs i; of the 
end of the world," he gave them, and then 
added, " This generation shall not pass away 
till all these things be fulfilled." The diffi- 
culty of understanding him lies wholly in the 
double meaning of the term " world." In one 
sense it denotes the earth, and in another the 
state of things on the earth. Hence, a young 
man leaves school, and goes out into " the 
world;" by which he does not mean that he 
is to live on the earth, for he has always lived 
there since he was born, but that he is to en- 
ter society and take part in social affairs. 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



107 



Now the Greek, in which the Gospels were 
written, avoids this equivocal use of language, 
by having two different words for these two 
different meanings ; one of which, " kosmos," 
means the earth, while the other, " aion," 
means the state of things on the earth ; that 
is, the age, to use our simplest term. So in 
explaining the parable of the tares, Jesus 
says the field is the kosmos (that is, the earth) ; 
and the harvest is the end, not of the earth, 
but of that age, of that state of things which 
then existed in the world. The confusion of 
ideas is solely in our imperfect translation and 
the double meaning of the English term 
"world;" for the original Gospels nowhere 
speak of the destruction of the earth, but only 
of the end of that age, or, as we sometimes 
say, the end of those times. "What, then, did 
Jesus mean ? 

THE FULFILMENT. 

He meant that he was coming, not visibly, 
in bodily form, but spiritually, in the power 



108 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



of his religion and the power of God, to judge 
the Jewish nation. That Jewish world, age, 
or dispensation, was to come to an end ; and 
the Christian world, Christian age, Christian 
dispensation, was to take its place. Christ's 
kingdom was to be established on the earth, 
after being heralded by that day of judgment 
with which he threatened the impious and 
cruel people who murdered the prophets of 
God. Famine, pestilence, and war should all 
combine to bring destruction upon the nation, 
to waste away the people, destroy the armies, 
burn up the cities, and throw down the sacred 
temple, so that all the tribes of the land should 
mourn. Terrible was the judgment with 
which Jesus threatened them, but still more 
terrible was the reality, when, in the lifetime 
of that very generation, the whole Jewish 
world came to an end as he predicted. Long 
before the Roman armies, the ministers of 
divine justice, reached Judea, a hundred thou- 
sand Galileans and Samaritans were put to 
death ; and then the devoted city of Jerusalem 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 109 



saw itself hemmed in. Of the horrors of that 
siege, when so large a part of the nation was 
cooped up in the circuit of the city walls, 
when they were butchered by their own mad 
zealots, were slain by the Roman javelins, 
were wasted away by famine and disease, and 
reduced to such dire extremity that a mother 
was willing to eat her own child, no one can 
adequately speak. Josephus, who witnessed 
the scene, estimates that more than a million 
lives were lost in those five years of warfare, 
and says, " It seems to me that the misfor- 
tunes of all men, from the beginning of time, 
sink in comparison with those of the Jews." 
Truly the Son of man did come in the power 
of his Father and of the holy angels, when 
this great enemy to Christianity was over- 
thrown and blotted from the face of the earth ; 
and the Roman General himself is said to 
have declared, when he saw the strength of 
the captured city, u We certainly have had 
God for our assistant in this war, and it was 
no other than God who drove the Jews out 



110 THE DAT OF JUDGMENT. 



of these fortifications ; for what could the 
hand of men, or any machines, do towards 
overthrowing these towers ? " 

This was the second coming of Christ, 
which he foretold so vividly that its literal 
fulfilment must have given his disciples a still 
clearer proof of his Messiahship. The judg- 
ment with which he threatened the cities 
wherein most of his mighty works were done, 
came, as he said it would, in the lifetime of 
that generation. The judgment which Paul 
said was impending came within five years 
of the time when Felix trembled in view of it. 
The disciple whom Jesus loved did tarry till 
the coming of his Master; and all the Gospel 
predictions upon the subject were realized in 
that spiritual coming at the end of the Jewish 
age, between a.d. 65 and a.d. 70. Not the 
slightest hint is given of still another coming 
to be looked for in or after our day ; for all 
that was meant by the second coming of 
Christ, the great day of judgment and the 
end of the world, took place eighteen centuries 
ago. 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



Ill 



WILL THE WORLD END ? 

" Is there, then, no end of this material 
world which we inhabit ? " I do not know. 
Ail that I have said about it thus far is, that 
Jesus did not hint at such an event in his re- 
corded teachings. What I do know, however, 
is, that, so far as you and I are concerned, our 
connection with the world will come to an 
end. We may heap up worldly treasures by 
violence, cunning, and fraud, or engage in un- 
holy traffic for the sake of its unholy gains ; 
but the hour is coming when they shall all 
drop from the cold, lifeless hands which an- 
other shall fold for us across our breast, after 
the sins of earth are all over, but not the pun- 
ishment of those sins. We may seek worldly 
pleasures in an unchristian way ; may go off 
into forbidden paths to pluck forbidden fruit ; 
may live as though the bodily appetites alone 
were worth caring for, while the soul is left to 
pine away and starve ; but the hour is coming 
when the world shall fade from our dull, glazed 



112 THE DAY OP JUDGMENT. 



eyes, and with it shall fade all "the lust of the 
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of 
life," which are not of the Father, but belong 
wholly to the world. We can live in our 
vices and for them, — indulging every vile 
passion that asks to be gratified, heeding the 
whisper of every vile thought, and finding 
our momentary pleasure (to be followed by 
years of woe) in scenes from which the holy 
angels veil their faces in shame ; but the hour 
is coming when the body, with all these de- 
sires, shall be stripped off, and we shall stand 
face to face with the spiritual realities we now 
neglect or despise. And how will it be with 
us then ? Shall we find that the faithful efforts 
of a lifetime have laid up for us treasures in 
heaven, so that we shall be rich towards God? 
Shall we have in our hearts a capacity for 
pure and holy joy, so that we can share in the 
delights of the angels ? or shall we find to our 
dismay, as we draw near the heavenly host, 
that "we cannot join in the dance, for we 
know not the measure, — and cannot join in 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



113 



the song, for we know not the strain " ? The 
end of all material things draws near to your 
soul and mine ; and soon we must learn 
whether we are fitted to enter at once into 
the mansions of the blessed, or must remain 
in the outer darkness to expiate, through long 
years of suffering, the sinful abuses of life. 

OUR DAY OF JUDGMENT. 

"Is there, then, no day of judgment?" 
Yes : there is such a day. The great judg- 
ment, which Jesus foretold to the men of his 
generation, came and passed as he declared ; 
but our day of judgment remains, and we 
must give account of ourselves to God. I 
know that this does not always come speedi- 
ly, as men reckon time. I know you may 
possibly be dishonest, impure, profane to-day, 
and yet to-morrow call yourself as well as 
ever, and say nothing can hurt you, and laugh 
at all threats of punishment. I know that 
you can despise the long-suffering of God, not 
knowing that he is trying to win you to re- 
8 



114 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



pentance before driving you back from sinful 
paths by his chastening rod. But I also know 
that, sooner or later, the full penalty of your 
guilt must be paid. Even though no one on 
earth is acquainted with the sin, you will find 
that " the way of the transgressor is hard ; " 
and that before the brief delirium of sinful 
enjoyment has passed, the bitter punishment 
will have already begun. Not one law of God 
can be violated with impunity. We shall be 
forced at last to acknowledge to ourselves, 
even if we still conceal it from the world, that 
the Judge of all the earth has pronounced sen- 
tence upon us, and has kindled in our being 
the unquenchable fire which never goes out 
till its purifying work is finished. No surer is 
it that the setting sun will rise again, than that 
every act of transgression and disobedience 
will receive its just recompense of reward. 
Nay, this last is the surer of the two ; for the 
time may come when the setting sun shall not 
rise or be seen any more in all the universe, 
and yet we must suffer the inevitable punish- 
ment of our iniquities. 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



115 



u Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind ex- 
ceeding small ; 
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness 
grinds he all." 

Nothing in all nature or revelation is more 
certain than this, that for every sinning soul 
there is a day of judgment. 

CHRIST HAS COME. 

u But is not Christ coming again to his dis- 
ciples ? " Ah. friends ! have you yet to learn 
that Christ is already on the earth with his 
disciples, only our dull, mortal eyes cannot 
discern him ? Our eyes are holden that we 
should not know him. Yet a little while, — 
who can tell how little ? — and we shall see him 
who in his bodily form will not come to us. 
As soon as we are absent from the body, we 
shall realize the presence of the Lord ; and 
then looking at him. no longer obscurelv in 
the Gospel pages, we shall see him face to 
face, and shall know even as we are already 
known. Therefore it would be treachery to 
my own deep convictions if I should simply 



116 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



say to you, " The Lord is coming,' 5 when the 
words which keep rising to my lips are so 
much sweeter, dearer, and truer, u The Lord 
has come." He is very near his disciples. 
He will be with them to their journey's end. 
He is in no far-off heaven where he cannot 
watch his followers, to sympathize with their 
defeats and rejoice in their triumphs ; but he 
is near enough to see his religion spreading 
slowly through the world, and to note who 
are doing good service for God and humanity. 
He heard the Christmas carols whose echoes 
have scarcely died out over the world, and the 
anthems of praise which have risen to heaven 
this day. Wherever true hearts are toiling 
and praying for the regeneration of mankind, 
his spirit is among them; and the work which 
was begun eighteen hundred years ago by the 
Man of Sorrows is watched over and blessed 
to-day by the risen Lord of glory. T cannot 
say to you, " Christ is coming," but " Christ 
has come ; " and when the scales drop from our 
eyes we shall see him as he is. 



LECTURE IX. 



SALVATION. 

HP HE New Testament continually asserts 
that we are saved through Jesus Christ. 
We are told it " is a faithful saying, and wor- 
thy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners;" and an apostle 
declares, " Neither is there salvation in any 
other, for there is none other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we must 
be saved." Therefore I ask, to-night, what is 
that salvation, and how it is secured through 
him? 

IHB I WO MEANINGS. 

At the outset, we find in popular use two 
different meanings of the word " salvation." 
One makes it refer chiefly to deliverance from 
some threatened punishment, and lays great 
stress on the fact that Jesus is to save us from the 



118 



SALTATION. 



wrath and the judgment to come. It promises 
to rescue the dishonest man from the just pen- 
alty of his dishonesty, the drunkard from the 
penalty of his intoxication, the impious man 
from the penalty of his impiety, and all the 
worldly, selfish, and unspiritual from the evil 
results which threaten them under the moral 
government of God. Especially does it point 
to the ever-burning fires of the spirit world, 
and call upon men to enter the Christian 
Church to escape so great a condemnation. 

But the other meaning of salvation, which 
we think far more scriptural, makes the word 
refer to deliverance from sin. It declares that 
as a physician cures a sick man by restoring 
him to health, so Jesus saves the dishonest 
man by making hiin honest, the drunkard by 
making him temperate, the blasphemer by 
teaching him to hallow the holy name, and 
all the worldly, selfish, and unspiritual by turn- 
ing them away from their transgressions, and 
leading them to serve the Lord, henceforth, 
with loving hearts and willing hands. Nearly 



SALVATION. 



119 



every theologian, it is true, preserves both 
these meanings in his use of the word, and yet 
you will find, in listening to two different 
preachers, that one talks chiefly of saving you 
from the punishment of your sin, and the 
other of saving you from the sin itself. 

WHAT WE WANT. 

But which of these two salvations does the 
penitent soul really crave? Most certainly it 
does not crave deliverance from punishment. 
The truly penitent child confesses his fault, 
and willingly submits to the parent's disci- 
pline ; and the truly penitent man acknowl- 
edges his sin, and declares his readiness to pay 
the just penalty. The natural utterance of 
real contrition has always been in the spirit of 
the Jewish publican, " If I have taken any 
thing from any man by false accusation, I 
restore him fourfold." Indeed, so far from 
craving a deliverance from punishment, the 
repentant soul often can find no rest until it 
has offered to bear whatever can be inflicted 



120 



SALVATION. 



upon it. A man who had committed murder 
in the State of Ohio, and changed his residence 
to Iowa, where no one suspected his crime, was 
yet filled with the deepest remorse for what he 
had done. The image of his victim haunted 
him continually, and he was driven at last, by 
the stings of conscience, to return to the scenes 
of his guilt, make himself known to the offi- 
cers of justice, confess the murder, and submit 
to the extreme penalty of the violated law. 
And even if you call this an unusual, though 
it is by no means a solitary, case, it is still true 
in smaller crimes that sincere penitence is al- 
ways ready to accept whatever justice may 
decree. " Let him do what seemeth good in 
his sight," is the utterance of the contrite soul; 
and the prodigal after reaching home does 
not ask his father to make up what has been 
wasted in riotous living, but humbly prays, 
" Make me as one of thy hired servants." 

The one and only thing a contrite soul cares 
for (and you know it by your own experi- 
ence if you have learned what real contrition 



SALTATION. 



121 



means), is not to escape the punishment, but 
to escape the sin. Create in me a clean 
heart," is its desire, " and renew a right spirit 
within me." It prays that the evil thought 
may be thrust out of the mind for ever ; that 
the evil longings may be completely crushed 
and no more disturb our peace ; that the evil 
habits may be broken, and no more have do- 
minion over us. The one divine request which 
has echoed down through the ages is, ;; My 
son, give me thine heart ; *' and the one gen- 
uine petition which has risen up from every 
penitent child has been, " Save me from my 
sins, and give me a heart fixed on God." 

WHAT IS POSSIBLE. 

I say that the soul wishes only this salva- 
tion from sin. Now we must go farther, and 
see that no other salvation is possible ; for you 
cannot by any tears, penitence, or reformation 
escape the just punishment of your past sins. 
Whatever penalty has been affixed to any 
act of disobedience is no idle threat of some- 



122 



SALVATION. 



thing which may or may nor be exacted when 
the hour of reckoning comes; for, just as sure- 
ly as God exists, the penalty must be paid to 
the uttermost farthing by every one of us who 
commits the act. Has he pronounced judg- 
ment against an evil deed ? It will be exe- 
cuted on you if you commit the deed. Has 
he threatened an evil thought with punish- 
ment? Then you will be punished for every 
evil thought you cherish. If on leaving this 
house you enter on a night's debauch, and 
then, to-morrow morning, repent of it most 
sincerely and prayerfully, that penitence will 
not save you from the sure results which God 
has ordained to follow every such violation of 
his holy laws. You may be dishonest, im- 
pure, intemperate, and profane, and then turn 
squarely round and seek the Christian life ; 
but the penalty for what you have done must 
still be paid. The prodigal is freely forgiven 
by his father, and welcomed back to his bound- 
less love, but the patrimony he has wasted 
and the constitution he has destroyed are not 



SALTATION. 



123 



restored ; and who can doubt that such a one 
feels to the end of his life the bitter results of 
his early misdeeds ? Look fairly at your own 
experience, friends, and answer in the privacy 
of your souls, — " After all your repentance 
and reformation, are you not this very night 
suffering for the evil you once committed ? ? ' 

And why should a man ask to be saved from 
the punishment connected with his sins ? For 
those punishments are ordained, either wisely 
or unwisely. If you say. " unwisely." you im- 
peach the character of God ; and if ; - wisely.*' 
then they are the best results to follow your 
acts of disobedience, and to ask to be saved 
from them would be folly indeed. Rather 
should we bow before God in childlike trust 
and say, " Thy will is the best will, may thy 
will be done. The cup which my Father 
gives me to cure me of my sins, shall I not 
drink it ?" 

The only salvation offered us is the only 
one desired by humble and contrite souls — a 
salvation from every sin. Thanks be to God, 



124 



SALVATION. 



that is promised us, and is in the reach of all. 
From anger, hatred, and revenge; from ava- 
rice, vanity, and lust; from guilty habits 
which enchain us and guilty passions which 
lord it over the soul ; from every vice which 
corrupts our nature, every sin against God, 
every crime against humanity, we can be 
saved. We can be delivered from every 
thing which estranges us from the heavenly 
Father, and be reunited to him in perfect re- 
conciliation through penitence and love. And 
so the Gospel tells us that the Messiah re- 
ceived his name of Jesus, because he should 
save his people from their sins. 

HOW JESUS SAVES. 

But in what sense, with our Unitarian be- 
lief, can we say that salvation comes through 
him ? We reject in every one of its forms the 
doctrine of vicarious atonement. We do not 
believe that Jesus suffered the punishment due 
the human race ; for we see that every man is 
punished for his own sins. We do not believe 



SALVATION. 



125 



that his righteousness is accepted as a substi- 
tute for our non-performance of duty ; for we 
hold that each one, individually, is called on 
to lead a righteous life, and will not be saved 
until he does. We do not believe he did any 
thing to avert the wrath of God, and persuade 
him to be merciful to sinning men ; for we 
know that even when men were most sinful, 
God looked upon them with the tenderest 
mercy and love. Nor do we believe, as some 
of our fellow- Christians imagine we do, that 
we are saved through the power of Christ's 
example alone ; for, much as we value that 
example, we do not think of it as the only or 
the chief means by which he delivers us from 
sin. But we do believe that perfect reconcilia- 
tion requires a change in man only, not in 
God; and I wish to show you what Jesus 
has done to bring about this change. 

TRUE REPENTANCE. 

First, then, we say that Jesus saves us from 
sin by leading us to true repentance. Stand- 



128 



SALVATION, 



ing forth in the midst of the world's corrup- 
tions, he made men feel, as never before, the 
sinful character of their lives. His purity- 
shamed the world's impurity, his virtues the 
world's vices, his perfections the world's im- 
perfection, Before knowing him, men might 
have gone on heedlessly in their old ways, 
without once realizing how far they had 
swerved from rectitude, and how scarred and 
stained their souls had become. Compar- 
ing themselves simply with themselves, they 
thought they had need of nothing; and they 
did not know that they were wretched, mis- 
erable, poor, and blind, until they looked on 
him who was rich in all virtues and was 
clothed with the beauty of holiness. The 
coming of Jesus was, therefore, a revelation, 
not merely of the true life which ought to 
be led, but of the false life which so many 
were leading. The word he spoke was a dis- 
cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 
It stripped oft' the disguise from human souls, 
and, like the magic touch of Ithuriel's spear. 



SALTATION. 



127 



revealed sin in all its hateful deformity. " If 
I had not come and spoken unto them," said 
Jesus, " they had not had sin ; but now they 
have no cloak for their sin." 

This feeling that we need salvation must 
lie at the basis of every Christian effort. In- 
deed, a sense of need must lie at the basis of 
all action whatever. It is the want of food 
which stirs up our sluggish natures, arousing 
the indolent savage from sleep to kill the bear 
and deer, impelling the Esquimaux to chase 
the seal and walrus, and covering the lakes 
and oceans with the sails of countless ships. 
So, also, it is only those who have been made 
to feel a hunger and thirst for righteousness, 
that will buckle on the Christian armor and 
force a passage " by the thorn-road " to heav- 
en's gate. And this thirst for holiness, this 
loathing of former sins, this longing for recon- 
ciliation with God, comes to us from a knowl- 
edge of Jesus' life and teachings. It is the 
first step in our salvation through him. 



128 



SALVATION. 



CERTAINTY OP SALTATION. 

In the second place, besides showing the 
need of salvation, Jesus also teaches that, 
every earnest effort to reach it will surely suc- 
ceed. Indeed, the former without the latter 
would be no blessing at all, but only a posi- 
tive curse. Better let a man perish in all un- 
consciousness, than rouse him to the fear of 
an evil which he will not be able to avoid ; 
since always, to create a new want which 
cannot by any possibility be gratified, is far 
worse than to leave the soul untouched. 
Christianity therefore would not have been 
truly a gospel, unless, after filling a man with 
hatred of all sin, it had shown him a sure way 
of escape. 

Now this assurance that we can be saved 
from our sins is given us through a belief in 
Jesus. The very moment we accept his words, 
our doubts and fears all vanish, and deliver- 
ance is seen to be directly within our reach. 
The battle may be hard, but the victory is 



SALVATION. 



129 



sure. The race may be long, but the crown 
can be won. The all-loving Father is seen 
ready to welcome us while yet we are a great 
way off; and the heavenly hosts are heard 
tuning their harps for the glad anthem which 
rises when any wanderer turns his weary feet 
toward home. Very weary, weak, and heavy- 
laden a man maybe in this life, but if he lays 
hold of Christianity with a loving faith he will 
find rest for his soul. Very low, vicious, and 
degraded he may be, but if he turn to the Fa- 
ther in true penitence, he shall enter the blessed 
mansions and be in nowise cast out. The 
whole Gospel, from beginning to end, is filled 
with this assurance : so that every one who 
accepts its teachings knows beyond all doubt 
or questioning that if he asks for God's for- 
giveness he will receive it; if he seeks Chris- 
tian holiness he will find it ; if he knocks at 
heaven's gate it will open to admit him. The 
very essence of the religion of Jesus is, that 
every penitent soul will find pardon, peace, 
9 



130 



SALVATION, 



and full salvation ; and therefore we say that 
we are saved through him. 

MORAL POWER. 

Thirdly; besides showing the need and cer- 
tainty of salvation, Jesus gives us power to 
become sons of God in character as we already 
are by creation. Explain the method as we 
will, the great fact yet remains that our high- 
est spiritual life flows from the Father through 
the Son into human souls; and the experience 
of the world declares that Jesus did not fail 
to accomplish the lofty purpose for which he 
came — that we might have life and have it 
more abundantly. It was not weak bodies 
only that he endowed with might, but weak 
souls ; so that whoever comes into spiritual 
union with him, feels able to do all things 
through the strength which comes from Christ, 
It was not human bodies only, that he called 
back from the grave ; but his voice reached to 
human souls, also, which were dead to noble 
thoughts and aspirations, and awoke them to 



SALVATION. 



131 



a new and holier life. The very moment you 
come into harmony with his spirit, you find 
his words to the Samaritan true: " The water 
that I shall give him shall be in him a well 
of water springing up into everlasting life." 
Have we not found this true ? When we read 
the narrative of Jesus' life before our morning 
or evening devotions, are we not more in the 
mood of praying? When temptations fierce- 
ly assail us, do we not find there an increased 
power of resisting them? When we are wait- 
ing the workings of God's will, even as the 
sick watch wearily for the morning, have not 
his words helped us possess in patience our 
souls? And when affliction comes, and the 
hand of death is laid upon those we love, 
have not our hearts learned through him the 
secret of quiet resignation ? And so, have we 
not found that it is life eternal to know the 
only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has 
sent? 

There is no room here for dogmatism ; 
scarcely any for argument. We can only 



132 



SALVATION, 



look at the declarations of the Gospel on the 
one hand, and the experience of humanity on 
the other; the Gospel everywhere declaring 
that Jesus was to infuse health and strength 
into human souls, and myriads of souls re- 
sponding that he has, indeed, raised them up 
from the weakness and death of sin, and 
given them power to become sons of God. 

SUMMARY OP DOCTRINE. 

I have shown you in a former lecture that 
we look forward with full assurance of faith 
to the salvation of every human being. That 
is the only view to our mind which accords 
with Ijhe teachings of Jesus in his Gospel, or 
the teachings of the Holy Spirit in our souls. 
Yet it does not follow from this, that all or 
any human beings will escape the punishment 
of their sins ; for you have seen to-night that 
every act of transgression and disobedience 
will receive a just recompense of reward. Not 
only is it impossible to escape in this way the 
consequences of our guilt, but the truly pen- 



SALVATION. 



133 



itent soul never so much as asks for it, since 
it knows that all the divine chastenings are 
for our profit, to make us partakers of God's 
holiness. The Scriptural meaning of salva- 
tion, we have learned, is deliverance from sin, 
and only when we become pure and holy shall 
w£ be fully saved. Then when we look far- 
ther and inquire how this deliverance is se- 
cured, the New Testament tells us that our 
great helper is Jesus Christ. For, first, he 
brings that conviction of sin, which makes us 
feel how much we need Christian salvation, 
and how far short we fall of the perfect stand- 
ard of holiness. Then, secondly, when we are 
truly penitent, he shows the certainty of for- 
giveness, and assures us, by the full authority 
of his religion, that if we earnestly try to es- 
cape our sins, we shall become free indeed, 
and shall enter the joy of our Lord. And, 
finally, while promising us this salvation, he, 
himself, through his life and teachings, suffer- 
ings and death, gives us power to become sons 
of God. The divine wisdom, strength, and 



134 



SALVATION. 



comfort, flow into us through him, so that we, 
like the beloved disciple, "have seen and do 
testify that the Father sent the Son to be the 
Saviour of the world." 

And my heart's desire and prayer for you 
all is that you may thus be saved. 



/ 



LECTURE X. 



THE NEW BIRTH. 

TTNITARIANS admit as fully as Trinita- 
rians the truth of Jesus' words, " Ex- 
cept a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." Let us find out what he 
meant. 

SEEING GOD'S KINGDOM. 

Jesus speaks sometimes of seeing God's 
kingdom, and sometimes of entering it, — 
meaning, in both cases, the same thing. In 
no instance does he use it of any future abode 
in distinction from this which we now in- 
habit (though he teaches at other times that 
there is such an abode), but always of that 
loyal condition of the soul which we can 
attain to in the body and on the earth. So 
John Calvin says, " They are mistaken who 



136 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



suppose that the kingdom of God means 
heaven ; for it rather means the spiritual life 
which is begun by faith in this world.' 5 To 
understand exactly what Jesus meant, we 
have only to recall a similar use of language 
in the journals of the day, when announcing 
nearly three years ago, that the state of Ve- 
netia had just " entered the kingdom of Italy." 
Now what is it that has happened there? No 
change has taken place in the location of 
Venice; for its lands and water remain just 
where they were, and the great mass of the 
population is the same. But the state which 
once obeyed the Austrian rule now acknowl- 
edges the Italian ; substitutes Italian laws for 
Austrian laws ; the proclamations of Victor 
Emmanuel for those of Francis- Joseph ; the 
decrees of the Italian parliament for those 
which used to come from Vienna. Young 
men who once served in the Austrian ranks 
now volunteer in the Italian, and the taxes 
which once helped keep up the Austrian em- 
pire now find their way into the Italian treas- 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



137 



ury. Little change could at first be seen in 
the people, or their occupations; but the 
allegiance which before was paid under com- 
pulsion to one country, has been offered 
cheerfully to another, and we, therefore, say 
that " Venice has entered the kingdom of 
Italy." So a man enters the kingdom of God 
when he gives himself upfto the divine will; 
renders cheerful obedience to the divine laws ; 
consecrates himself to the divine service ; 
and acknowledges in every way his allegiance 
unto God. 

In one sense, it is true that the divine king- 
dom is already established in the world. All 
things exist by the mighty power of God, and 
are subject to his will. He makes the winds 
his messengers, the flaming lightnings his 
ministers ; he rides upon the whirlwind, and 
directs the storm ; he lifts the mountain 
ranges of the earth, and holds the sea as in 
the hollow of his hand : and thus, snow and 
hail and stormy winds fulfil his word, by 
rendering obedience to his will. Even man, 



138 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



however rebellious his spirit, cannot break 
away from this net-work of laws, but must 
often observe how completely God can make 
the wrath of his children to praise him, while 
the remainder of their wrath he restrains. So 
in one sense it is true, that, either willingly or 
unwillingly, we must all obey the same un- 
changing laws. 

But there is a certain sphere of freedom 
allowed every soul, in which the Almighty 
does not exercise his sovereign rights. There 
is a limited freedom to choose, though not al- 
ways to do what we choose ; to rebel against 
God, or to stand up boldly for his cause ; to 
cherish unholy purposes, or to become filled 
with a Holy Spirit. If a man's house is his 
castle into which the king may not come un- 
invited, still more is this free-will of man a 
private refuge into which the King of kings 
does not strive to force his way by his omni- 
potence ; and a full entrance, therefore, into 
the kingdom of God requires that this per- 
sonal will should come into harmony with the 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



139 



divine; and that while doing what we choose, 
we should choose to do the right. 

So each of you enters the kingdom of God, 
not when you die and go to a future world, 
but when you render this voluntary obedience 
to him in filial trust and love ; when you 
place conscience before passion, duty before 
inclination, what is right before what is pleas- 
ant. In short, when you are loyal to God in 
body, mind, and soul, you will have entered 
his everlasting kingdom. 

MEANING OF NEW BIRTH. 

What then is meant by the " new birth " 
through which we come into this right rela- 
tion to God? It means just what you do in 
saying, " This one or that must be a very dif- 
ferent person before I'll trust him.' 5 " He 
must be a new man before he ? ll be a true 
Christian." As you turn over the pages of 
the Bible, you find many terms used to ex- 
press the nature of the change which men 
must undergo in becoming what they ought 



140 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



to be. Thus the Psalmist prayed that God 
would " create a clean heart and renew a 
right spirit within him." Paul desired men 
to be " renewed in the spirit of their minds," 
and " to put on the new man which is created 
in righteousness and true holiness." The 
Apostle John found the change so great that 
he called it " passing from death unto life." 
And Jesus at times said that men must " be 
converted and become like little children," 
and at other times that they " must be born 
again." Yet all these terms are but varied 
modes of declaring that a great, a radical, 
change is needed in a man's character, heart, 
and life, before he can truly say he is a faith- 
ful subject of the divine kingdom. Each ex- 
pression above quoted throws light on all the 
rest, and helps us understand that Jesus was 
announcing no new mystery, but only a most 
momentous fact. 

Not a mystery, but a simple, intelligible 
fact, we are to see in his words. Look up at 
the bright, but far-off, picture of what it is to 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



141 



be fully in God's kingdom ; the perfect loy- 
alty, trust, obedience, love, that are required; 
the complete giving up of yourself to him, so 
that you speak only those words, think only 
those thoughts, and do only those deeds 
which are pleasing in his sight; look up to 
that bright ideal, and then look down into 
your own hearts — so far below this standard 
— so imperfect, so sinful ; look, I say, at this 
broad gulf between what you are and what 
God would have you become, and you will 
see how great, how radical, a change is re- 
quired — a change so thorough that Jesus 
called it being "born again." No outward 
alteration of the conduct is enough ; no put- 
ting on of solemn looks, going through with 
sacred forms, reading from Holy Scriptures, 
and making loud professions of faith. No, 
none of these are enough, unless the change 
goes way down into the heart out of which 
are the issues of life; unless the change is 
inward, as well as outward, you have not 
entered the kingdom of heaven. 



142 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



To return to the illustration before used, 
you may possibly find in Venice, to-day, some 
Austrian sympathizer who pays large taxes 
to Italy very promptly; who keeps all the 
laws that have been ordained for the king- 
dom ; who hires a substitute to serve in the 
national army, and himself administers some 
office so faithfully that no fault will ever be 
found, and yet, you say, " he's no good Ital- 
ian for all that;" and some ragged beggar 
who, instead of supporting the government, 
has to be supported by it, may be far more 
of a genuine Italian citizen. And why ? Be- 
cause, in spite of his outward life, the rich 
nobleman is Austrian at heart, hates the new 
king who rules over the land, and longs to 
have a German army come back and restore 
the ancient order of things : while the 
wretched beggar leaps for joy that the city is 
free, and shouts " Long live Italy." It is a 
loyal heart that makes a loyal citizen; and 
the nobleman's heart must be changed ; must 
be born anew ; must be made all over again, 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



143 



so that he shall love the new kingdom, rejoice 
in its joys, weep for its sorrows, labor and 
pray for its welfare. What if he is doing all 
his outward duties to-day ? You still tell 
him he must be a very different man, must be 
"born again " before he can be as good an 
Italian as the poor fellow who is starving at 
the palace gates. And it is the heart which 
makes the true subject of the heavenly King; 
and he who at heart is worldly, selfish, sinful, 
must be born again in order to enter the king- 
dom of God. The two cases are perfectly 
parallel ; and if you understand the change 
required of that Austrian sympathizer in 
Venice, you can understand also what Jesus 
requires of each one who is not leading a 
Christian life already. 

But some one may say, " Does not the ex- 
pression ' born again ' imply, literally, a com- 
plete transformation ? " I suppose it does ; 
but you must interpret the Bible as you do 
other books, and remember that many things 
in it are written in a popular way to be un- 



144 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



derstood like other popular words which are 
used in common conversation. Thus the 
Bible says Jerusalem and all Judea and all 
the country round about Jordan were baptized 
by John. Do you believe that literally all — 
every one — submitted to baptism? Again 
it says, all men came to Jesus. Do you be- 
lieve it, literally, that every man in the whole 
world came to him ? Again it says, no man 
receives Christ's testimony; and yet at that 
very moment he had at least four of his 
twelve apostles with him, and was baptizing 
crowds of converts continually. How can 
you explain the contradiction ? Only by say- 
ing that the Bible uses language in a popular 
way, and must be explained in that way. 
The statement that everybody went to Jesus, 
means neither more nor less than your com- 
mon statement that you " met everybody you 
knew" in the city the last time you went in, 
or that you " went to the city yesterday and 
didn't see anybody." There is a certain li- 
cense of speech everywhere claimed and al- 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



145 



lowed ; and as you see from the examples just 
given, it must be allowed the speakers and 
writers in the Bible. You have no more 
right to apply rigid philosophical tests to 
every passage of the Scriptures than to every 
word spoken by a truthful man or woman ; 
and so when Jesus tells of a " new birth " 
being needed, you cannot infer that every 
thing must be made over again, but only 
that the required change is a great, radical 
one, reaching way down to the springs of life. 

Jesus used forcible words, because they 
were needed in order to impress the truth. 
Simply to say, " improve," " be better," " try 
harder," &c, were far too feeble commands ; 
he bids you begin all over again with a new 
heart and new purpose which shall be to you 
as a new life. When you can truly say that 
your great desire is to love and serve God, 
you have been born again. 



10 



146 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



WHO MUST BE CHANGED. 

The final question. Who must be changed? 
has already been answered in substance; it is 
every one who has not yet entered the king- 
dom of God. Whether the words of Jesus, 
therefore, apply to this man or that, to some 
men or all. is no matter of abstract reasoning 
or dogmatic assertion, but simply a question 
of fact. And yet there is one sense in which 
the words seem to apply to the whole human 
race. The child's bodily life is developed be- 
fore the spiritual; its senses, appetites, and 
instincts control it first in point of time, and 
slowly give over the reins of government into 
the hands of reason and conscience. Though 
born with a religious capacity, the child can- 
not be said to love and serve God, since he 
does not even know the name. His embryon- 
ic virtues must be fully developed ; his germs 
of goodness quickened into life ; his dormant 
soul awakened to the reality of spiritual 
things. And when this time of awakening 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



147 



comes, and he first is conscious of his relig- 
ious obligations, and devotes himself with his 
whole heart to a religious life, he is truly born 
again. 

This, then, is our Unitarian faith: that by 
entering the kingdom of God, Jesus did not 
mean " going to any future abode," but com- 
ing into right relations with God in perfect 
obedience and love ; that by the " new birth," 
he meant just what you do in saying, that 
"such a one must become a new man before 
he will be a Christian;" and this new birth 
is required of every one who does not already 
love and serve God. 

THE PRACTICAL LESSON. 

So far from being a matter of mere specu- 
lation, the doctrine, as we preach it, has great 
practical value. This " new birth " is not 
something which you passively undergo, 
some change wrought on you by the mighty 
power of God. He does not stretch forth his 
hand from the heavens, to snatch you up out 



148 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



of your sins, and drag you into his kingdom 
of peace and love. He does not change a 
human soul from sin to holiness by any irre- 
sistible grace, in a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye, — like the old magicians, whose wand 
changed stones and brutes into thinking, lov- 
ing men. No, friends ! if you wait for God to 
make you all over again, while you do noth- 
ing for yourself, you will wait through all 
eternity, and never see salvation come from 
him ; but you must work with him in holy 
fear and trembling earnestness, and then the 
happy result is sure. He gives the powers, 
but you must use them in accordance with 
his will ; he gives the opportunities, but you 
must improve them faithfully each day ; he 
sends down his Holy Spirit to your side, but 
you must open wide the door of your hearts, 
and give it a cordial welcome. The divine 
and the human must work together, in, with, 
and for each other, and then you enter the 
kingdom of God. 

The heavenly Father has done his part 



THE NEW BIRTH. 



149 



every moment since you were born ; and if 
you have failed thus far to enter his kingdom, 
the failure has not been owing to him but to 
you. Have you tried by all the power you 
had, to resist the sin which so easily besets 
you ? Have you used all the proffered helps 
to a Christian life, — the reading of devout 
books, meditation upon holy themes, and 
habits of fervent prayer? Have you taken 
unto yourself the whole armor of God, that 
you may be able to withstand the power of 
evil when the time of trial comes ? Then be- 
gin at once to do all this. Put forth every 
power, use every help, and live in humble 
reliance upon God, — and you shall become a 
new man, and enter his heavenly kingdom to 
dwell with him for ever. 



LECTUEE XI. 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 

TN both Exodus and Deuteronomy you read 
that the earth is the Lord's, but find the 
emphasis placed on a different word in the 
two passages. In the first you read that " The 
earth is the LordlsP It is neither yours nor 
mine to gratify our sinful passions with ; 
neither Satan's nor Mammon's to hold his 
court in. It belongs to no king or parliament, 
no hero or saint, no church or state, but solely 
to our God. That is what the book of Exodus 
means. 

In the other place, however, you read that 
the earth is the Lord's. Not merely heaven, 
and the heaven of heavens, belong to him ; 
not merely the far-off worlds, which daily and 
nightly roll over our heads ; not merely the 
paradise of the blest, where the good of all 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



151 



ages unite in serving and loving the Eternal 
Father, and the fiery furnace of affliction, 
where the impure soul must have all its dross 
consumed before it can be one of the jewels 
of the heavenly King ; not merely these be- 
long to the Lord, but this earth, also, which 
we tread beneath our feet, is his. That is 
what the book of Deuteronomy implies. Now 
if you will take these two trains of thought 
and unite them, you will have the Christian 
doctrine concerning " the life that now is." 

NEAREST WORLD AND NEXT WORLD. 

Christians have often made the sad mistake 
of thinking so much of the next world, to 
which they are going, as to forget the nearest 
world, to which they have already come. God 
is sometimes spoken of as seated on a far-off 
throne whither we shall go to see him by and 
by ; and heaven as a distant resting-place 
where virtue will find, after death, the reward 
which does not await it here ; while the un- 
quenchable fires, which form a part of the 



152 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS 



divine chastenings, are imagined to be all re- 
served for a future time when sin will receive 
the punishment it now so happily escapes. 
So long as my soul is pent in the body, I am 
told that I roam " absent from God; " and the 
world is thought to be so far removed from 
the tokens of divine presence, that to live in 
it is to live away from God and heaven. 
There are times, indeed, when this exclusive 
regard for the future seems natural to human 
souls. When our dearest earthly treasures 
have been carried away to the heavenly king- 
dom, our hearts must go there too. It be- 
comes at such times our only real home, the 
only quiet resting-place ; since, so far as mere 
pleasure is concerned, whatever life may have 
to offer, death will be gain. It was in this 
spirit Paul declared that he desired to depart 
from this world and be with Christ, for he felt 
that while at home in the body he was absent 
from his Lord ; not absent from GocL — he 
never dreamed of that impossibility, — but 
absent from the dear Saviour and Friend he 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



153 



longed to see — the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet 
these are but exceptional moods of the soul, 
which still leave unimpaired the general rule 
for human conduct, that we should not forget 
this nearest world which we now inhabit, in 
any dreams of the next, which God has in 
store for us. Therefore I want to show you 
what Unitarianism teaches about this nearest 
world — the life that now is. 

i. god's presence here. 

First, it tells us that God is as truly present 
here as in any world which he has made; as 
truly present in this state of being as in any 
we shall ever enjoy. It is as useless to talk of 
going to God, as it would be hopeless to try 
to escape him, whether we purpose to go up 
into the heavens or down into the grave, or to 
fly on the wings of the morning to the utter- 
most parts of the universe. Whichever way 
we turn he is present ; and philosophy has no 
diviner wisdom than the child's, who when 
told, " I will give you this dollar if you J ll 



154 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



show me where God is," instantly replied, 
" And I '11 give you twice as much if you '11 
show me where he is not" 

Yes, God is with us here to-day. Under 
these skies, by this stream, among these hills, 
he has his kingdom. Our beautiful valley is 
no prison-house or desert of exile, but a tem- 
ple for the ever-loving Father. To remain 
longer in the world is not to pass our hours 
away from him ; to be pent in the body is 
not to be cut off from his presence. We are 
not journeying toward God, but with him ; 
and our moving tents, wherever pitched at 
night, are in truth his mansions, and sur- 
rounded by the unseen host of angels. Then 
it is holy ground whereon we tread — hal- 
lowed by the Creator's footsteps ; and holy 
dwellings in which we live — sanctified by 
his presence. In his sight we walk the daily 
round of duty, perform our labors, bear our 
griefs, and meet temptations, since " all things 
are opened unto him with whom we have to 
do." And if God's presence could always be 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 155 

realized, where it actually is, in every situa- 
tion of life, the tempter would flee far away 
from us, and our hearts would keep free from 
sin. Let me only feel, what Jesus has taught, 
that the reign of God has begun even here, and 
henceforth sin will have no attractions which 
cannot be resisted, and earth no sorrow which 
cannot be cured. 

II. A PRESENT HEAVEN. 

Then, in the second place, heaven also be- 
gins on earth. Christianity does not store its 
blessings away in some well-guarded vaults of 
the unseen world, and simply promise to turn 
them over to our hands when we have passed 
through the gates of the grave. It is true that 
for the full fruition of our hopes we must wait 
until the future, just as children in the first 
drudgery of the alphabet and numeration can- 
not comprehend the joy of knowledge which 
will fill their minds years hence. The pre- 
cious seed of holiness may be sown with many 
bitter tears in the morning of life, and the full 



156 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



hour of rejoicing not be known until in the 
higher world we lay our sheaves before the 
Lord of the harvest. Yet, even here and 
now, we can have a foretaste of that heaven. 
Christianity is no " century plant," which 
shows nothing but leaves to one generation 
after another ; but it is a tree of life, which 
beareth all manner of good fruit and yield- 
eth that fruit every month, — yes, yieldeth 
enough every day for the soul's wants. 

Therefore it was no general rule which the 
apostle laid down when he declared that, " if 
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we 
are of all men most miserable." He was but 
referring to those fearful persecutions which 
were experienced by him and his comrades 
who were called on so literally to take up the 
cross and follow their Master ; and there may 
at times be seasons of just such trials now, 
when a truly Christian life will bring a man 
to sorrow, pain, and death. But save in these 
exceptional cases, holiness will bring its peace 
— its inward joy — to-day, as truly as in any 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



157 



coming time. Each good act will receive the 
approbation of God ; each pure thought will 
help us on towards complete harmony with 
him ; each fervent prayer will bring as gen- 
uine a response as any which we shall send 
up hereafter when we have joined the angelic 
throng. Whatever will make us rejoice in the 
presence of God then, will do so now; so that 
even here we can enter at once into our heav- 
en, and need go no more out for ever. 

III. UNQUENCHABLE FIRES NOW. 

In the third place, our Unitarian faith 
teaches that the unquenchable fires, which 
are to consume all the evil in the soul, are 
kindled here on the earth as soon as we com- 
mit a single act of sin. They are not all re- 
served for a distant future day, when those 
who shall not have " made their peace with 
God" will be cast into the ever -burning 
flames, while others, who repent before the 
hour of death, will wholly escape. No such 
uncertainty exists. No more here than here- 



158 THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



after can one of God's laws be violated with 
impunity. Not the slightest act of sin can be 
committed without incurring the sure misery 
which he has ordained. Whoso tampers with 
evil thoughts and purposes, whoso injures or 
defrauds his neighbor, whoso wastes his pow- 
ers by doing the wrong or neglecting the right, 
is condemned already by an unconditional 
sentence which contains no " if." He cannot 
enjoy the fruits of sin for a season, and im- 
agine that if he prepares a plea of repentance 
before the judgment day he will keep clear of 
the flames. He is judged already ; and a sure 
retribution has begun, which no remorse or 
regrets can avert. Repentance will indeed 
secure forgiveness, and forgiveness will bring 
a return of the heavenly Father's favor, but 
the strict penalty of each violated law must 
be paid. It is, then, nothing less than suicide 
to calculate the length of life to determine 
how long the soul can sin with safety and yet 
escape its sentence of condemnation. The 
moment you sin is your moment of judg- 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



159 



ment ; and a fire is immediately kindled 
which cannot be quenched by any tears, but 
will burn until all traces of your guilt are 
consumed. 

Therefore you will not in our churches hear 
the customary appeals to the uncertainties of 
life and the possibilities of death. We never 
give as a reason for repenting to-day, that 
you may, perhaps, die to-morrow; for this 
seems to imply the sad mistake that if you 
were certain of living to-morrow, there would 
be no special need of repenting at present! 
Hence, you may have met with people who 
cherish the deliberate purpose of becoming 
Christians before they die, and think that, if 
they do, the present sins will do no harm, or 
may even be a clear gain. Theologians may 
not mean it, and yet the practical effect of 
their teachings sometimes is, that sin is re- 
garded as the most desirable state for this life, 
and is to be avoided chiefly because it may 
not be repented of in season. No error can 
be more fatal than that ; for sin is now and 
always the ruin of the soul. 



160 THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 

Jonathan Edwards closed a sermon with 
the words, " Brethren, perhaps some of us will 
be in hell before to-morrow morning." But 
Unitarianism strikes out the word " perhaps," 
and says that if you sin to-night you certain- 
ly will have the fires of hell kindled in your 
soul before to-morrow morning. There is no 
"if," or "perhaps," or any conditional word, 
about it. Misery follows sin by a law which 
is as unchanging as God himself. The un- 
quenchable fires are not reserved for the spirit 
world, however long they may burn there, but 
are kindled here on the earth, at the moment 
when the sin is committed. 

IV. WORTH OP THE BODY. 

Because God's reign has begun on the 
earth, so as to give us a foretaste of the joys 
of virtue and the misery of vice, we find an 
increased value in the human body. I ap- 
proach the topic reverently, for it is very sa- 
cred ; and delicately, for it is connected with 
our seasons of bereavement : but I must 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



161 



dwell upon it long enough to show that much 
of our talk about the bodily life is utterly- 
opposed to human reason and divine revela- 
tion. Christians too often pronounce the 
body a prison-house of the soul — which is 
true only in cases of physical infirmity. They 
call the dead happy in escaping the body, and 
speak as though death were better than life. 
They give the school children verses to read, 
beginning, — 

u 0 fear not thou to die, 
But rather fear to live ; 99 

which last line is utterly unchristian ; and as 
for the result of reading and believing such 
errors, — 

" ' It is good when it happens/ say the children, 
' That we die before our time/ " 

And some expressions which even ministers 
use in the house of mourning, or by the newly- 
opened grave, mean, if they mean any thing 
at all, that the human body is only a hin- 
drance to the soul, and that more thanks 
11 



162 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



should be given for a child's death than its 
birth. 

This whole idea we utterly reject. The 
body is no more the prison of the soul, than 
the hot-house where your summer produce is 
started is the prison of your plants. Your 
physical frame is the nursery of the new-born 
soul — your real self. It is the home which 
the Creator prepared for you in his loving 
cane ; it is your defence against the enemies 
that await you in the first days of your spirit- 
ual feebleness ; it is your first medium of 
communication with the external world, and 
with the other souls that God has created. 
Through its eyes you take in the beauties of 
Nature ; through its ears you are charmed 
with the melody of sweet sounds ; with its 
feet you transplant yourself to sunnier spots 
where you can unfold your whole being more 
harmoniously; through its lips you can 
pour your own comfort, wisdom, and love into 
other hearts, so that they shall be " lifted up 
and strengthened." Will you call such a 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 163 

body a prison ? Why, it is your loving nurse 
who receives you from the hand of the Creator, 
enfolds you within protecting arms, feeds you, 
clothes you, watches over you with unceasing 
care, and takes the hard blows that would 
have destroyed your feeble life. By and by 
the child will leave the nurse's arms and look 
out for itself; and your soul will be wise 
enough and strong enough to quit the body, 
and fly to higher spheres of life ; but, in the 
earlier stages of your being, this residence in 
the body must be a cause of gratitude to 
God. 

We lay it down therefore, as a deduction 
of reason, that the soul needs the physical life 
to prepare it for what is to come afterwards ; 
and the whole gospel record shows that this 
was also the belief of Jesus. Not one expres- 
sion which disparages the human body can 
be found in his teachings. Instead of saying 
that death is better than life, his prayer was 
" not that thou shouldst take them out of the 
world." When he stood by the bedside of 



/ 



164 THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 

the young and found the spirit just leaving 
the body, he called it back to take up the 
physical life once more. When even those 
in maturer years had gone down to the gates 
of the grave, he did not hesitate to exert his 
power and bid them re-enter their tenements 
of flesh. "When young and old alike were 
brought to him in all their sickness and suf- 
fering, he did not bid any of them despise 
their earthly existence, but always used his 
gifts of healing to prolong their days. And 
when he sent forth his apostles to cure the spir- 
itual diseases of the world, he enjoined them 
also to restore the human bodies which were 
wasting away. Oh friends, you cannot read 
these gospel scenes without feeling that to the 
Saviour this human body had a far higher 
value than to those of his followers to-day 
who look on the peaceful face of the departed 
and say, " It is better to die than to live." 
Save when the body is ripe with age, or has 
become the seat of disease, it is not better to 
die than to live ! Jesus never said so ; and if 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 165 



it were true, the heavenly Father would never 
have given us a body. 

Yet what shall we say concerning those 
who pass away in early years before they 
have gained the lessons taught us through 
and by the body ? We say that for them it is 
well ; yes, for them it is best. Perhaps they 
are the ones who do not need the earthly 
training to fit them for a heavenly home; 
perhaps God has some higher good in store 
for them, which we cannot understand now, 
but shall know hereafter ; perhaps it was bet- 
ter for them to go not through the world, but 
by some other of the 

" thousand ways the Father hath 
To bring his children home." 

Therefore if after all our most patient care 
the loved ones are taken away, we trust them 
to God's still greater love ; but while any life 
remains, it is as much Christian, as human 
nature, to regard the body as one of heaven's 
great blessings, to be watched over with con- 
stant care and used with constant fidelity. 



166 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



Unitarianism, therefore, teaches that the 
laws of the body are divine laws, and that the 
connection between the body and the spirit 
must be preserved by all the means in our 
power, when it can be done without neglect- 
ing the higher claims of the soul. 

V. WORTH OF THE WORLD. 

Closely connected with the common error 
of despising the body, is the equally common 
one of despising the world. It is spoken of 
as something which we are not to love or 
care for, — something, too, that we must be 
very cautious about enjoying. Very many 
excellent people feel called on to speak slight- 
ingly of it, when they mention it at all, and 
to talk of another and better world in a tone 
of voice which implies that this is not the one 
on which the Creator looked when he " saw 
every thing he had made, and behold it was 
very good." They pronounce the friendship 
of the world to be enmity toward God, and 
declare that if any one loves it, the love of the 
Father is not in him. 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



167 



"But are not such expressions apostolic?" 
Yes : and thev were true when first written. 
When every nation on the face of the earth 
was opposed to the new religion and was try- 
ing to root it out; when nearly every prison 
contained Christian captives and every am- 
uhitheatre witnessed Christian martyrdoms ; 
when a gross, licentious idolatry was infused 
into literature, amusements, and social inter- 
course, poisoning the very fountains of life 
and joy, — who could love the world and its 
delights without giving up his love for God ? 
But now that Jesus has lived, suffered, 
and died, now that apostles have taught a 
higher faith and martyrs borne their witness 
to it, now that the Church has lived and la- 
bored for eighteen centuries, — surely the world 
has somewhat altered. The nations are not 
now all opposed to Christianity, and there 
are pure fountains of social pleasure whence 
we draw life and health, not poison and death, 
for our souls. The very object of Jesus was 
to change the world. Has he failed to do it? 



168 THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



Then Christianity is a failure. Has he suc- 
ceeded in doing it? Then the apostolic 
words which described the world correctly, 
ages ago, cannot be applied to it now. 

Therefore, in opposition to what is com- 
monly taught from the pulpit, our Unitarian 
faith teaches us to attach a high value to the 
world, whether we mean by that word this 
material earth, or our present life upon it. It 
maintains that true religion renders us still 
more susceptible to the beauty and power of 
Nature. He most enjoys the world who sees 
in it, not brute matter, but the manifestation 
of an infinite mind ; he who learns the glory 
of God from the heavens, and hears a voice 
concerning him from each successive day, and 
receives new knowledge of him from every 
coming night ; he to whom the beauty of a 
cloud is but the type of a higher beauty, and 
the grandeur of the mountain but a type of 
the infinite majesty, and the breaking waves 
of ocean but a voice from the Great Creator 
bearing a message to the human soul. The 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



169 



richest beauties that strike the eye. and all 
that is lovely, grand, or terrible in cloud and 
storm, aurora and rainbow, have new mean- 
ing, higher value, and greater enjoyment for 
him who looks through them all to the Infi- 
nite Being whose glories they ever portray. 
He who finds nothing good in this world 
which he has seen, how can he hope to find 
any in the spirit world which he has not seen, 
but which is created by the same God ? 

Or if by the term world r we mean our 
life upon the earth, it is still true that it de- 
serves more honor than it usually receives 
from the pulpit. If there are any Christians 
who have no f learned the full value of the 
world, they are ignorant of their birthright 
privileges. Let him despise this present life 
who knows of nothing beyond! Let him 
who does not see God's presence here, say, 
£< Vanity of vanities ! " Let him who does not 
know that the human body can be a temple 
of the Lord, talk of " vexation of spirit ! n Let 
him call the world a prison-house, a vale of 



170 



THE LIFE THAT NOW IS. 



darkness and of tears, who in his hour of trou- 
ble does not see the kingdom of heaven already- 
established on the earth ! But the Christian 
who knows that God is present with him to- 
day, helping the right and condemning the 
wrong, should recognize the real worth of this 
life. Its duties should seem to him more im- 
perative — its labors more important; nor till 
he believes his whole work is finished should 
he ask to be taken from the world. 

Not the heavens only, but the earth, is the 
Lord's ; not the future only, but the present ; 
not the soul only, but the body : that is the 
lesson of the day. Still, important as it is, it 
is only half a truth ; and as I have now 
shown you the high value which we place on 
" the life that now is," I shall try, in my next 
lecture, to show the still higher value we 
assign to "the life that is to come." 



LECTURE XII. 



THE LITE THAT IS TO COME. 
MAN'S faith has little to do with the 



reasons he gives for it. You may hold 
his arguments up to ridicule and demolish 
them every one, without shaking his faith in 
the slightest degree. You may question him 
as to the source of his strength, as Delilah did 
Samson, and think you have learned his whole 
secret; but when you have bound him with 
the seven green withes, or the new ropes, which 
he has said he could not possibly break, and 
look to see him fall a helpless captive to your 
doubts and unbelief, he rises up as free and 
strong as ever, and goes on his way rejoicing. 
For the strength of a man's faith does not 
depend on the strength of the arguments by 
which he tries to justify it to your mind or 
his own. 




172 THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 

Now this fact must be remembered in con- 
sidering the life that is to come. Here is a 
belief in immortality, as nearly universal as 
any human belief can be. It is prior to all 
arguments, and depends so little upon them 
that it would stand firm and unshaken though 
we utterly failed to justify it by any of the 
reasons we assigned. In other words, as a 
simple matter of fact, the reasons are all after- 
thoughts, like any we might give for loving 
our mother or trusting our father, while the 
real faith in immortality comes long before a 
single proof is offered to our minds. The 
most, therefore, that can be looked for in this 
lecture is an enumeration of arguments or cir- 
cumstances to strengthen the belief in a future 
life, and show that there is no occasion for 
doubts or fears. 

UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEF. 

The first argument is drawn from the uni- 
versality of this belief. No age, nation, or 
form of religion has failed to catch glimpses 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



178 



of this truth ; and if here and there a few in- 
dividuals are blind to the tokens of a " world 
which is to come.' 5 they are no more numer- 
ous than those who are blind to the glories of 
" the world which now is. 55 In some, the belief 
is so vague that they speak of the departed as 
"the shades," to denote the unsubstantial life 
which awaits them ; in others, it is so real that 
a warrior's horse is buried with him that he 
may go prepared for a new campaign ; and in 
all, the definite conception of that life varies 
with the civilization of the age. But beneath 
all these changing forms you find the one sen- 
timent of immortality, — as universal as the 
love which sets the solitary in families, or the 
social instincts which unite those families into 
States. It is, therefore, to be reckoned among 
the primitive instincts of the human soul. It 
is to be relied on because it comes from the 
Creator. " We take it on trust from the 
Father." 



174 THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



GREAT FAITH OF THE DYING. 

This argument is strengthened by the fact 
that faith in immortality increases as the hour 
of death draws near. The early doubts which 
were mingled with our trust all vanish as we 
enter the deep valley. The early fears which 
were mingled with our hopes pass away when 
the decisive change must be made. The soul 
no longer shrinks back as from a leap in the 
dark, but is so assured of spiritual realities as 
to reach gladly forth to them. The moment 
men are convinced that they have done with 
the life which now is, they are surer than ever 
of a life which is to come, and are so peace- 
ful, trusting, smiling, that they seem the only 
happy ones in the whole household, — the 
only ones who can wipe tears from every eye. 
As I look back upon the death-bed scenes I 
have witnessed, and recall the cheerful faces of 
the departing, I can truly say, " These all died 
in faith," whatever fears and doubts assailed 
them while living; and, unless you think the 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



175 



Creator mocks us in those last hours on earth, 
the immortality in which we then believe more 
firmly than before, must be a reality. 

LOVE FOR THE DEPARTED. 

Our continued affection for the departed is 
an indication of their continued existence. 
The undying love in our hearts will not let us 
believe that they have passed out of being. 
Because their memory remains so constantly 
with us that we cannot forget them even if 
we would ; because our affection, instead of 
dying out, grows stronger and tenderer than 
before; because the longing to be with them 
is never more intense than when they have 
passed from our sight, — we know that they, 
also, must still be remembering and loving us. 
Else would all these feelings of ours be but 
shameful mockery, and God would have filled 
our hearts with hope only to deceive ! If we 
did not miss those who have gone from our 
homes, we might indeed call them dead ; but 
since the Creator makes us love them all the 



176 THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 

more as the years roll by, he must have in 
store for us a reunion in another world. You 
cannot conceive of a good God keeping alive 
in our hearts an undying love for the departed, 
unless he means that we shall meet them 
again. 

TEACHINGS OF JESUS. 

All this natural faith in immortality is sanc- 
tioned and strengthened by the teachings of 
Jesus. He says indeed but little about it in 
his recorded words ; but once, when he de- 
clared that there was plenty of room in the 
heavenly mansions to which he was going, he 
explained why he had referred to it so little in 
his teachings, by adding, " If it were not so, I 
would have told you." It was in effect a dec- 
laration that the natural faith in immortality 
is well founded. 

No one, therefore, who believes in Jesus 
doubts of immortality ; and although faith in 
a future world existed before his coming, it is 
a hundred-fold stronger and clearer to-day be- 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 177 



cause of his teachings, life, and death. One 
of the very first effects of his mission was to 
give his followers a clearness and strength of 
faith which no one in earlier ages ever reached. 
Read the speculations of Grecian philoso- 
phers concerning the future, and the vague 
allusions to it in the Old Testament, and then, 
turning to the Christian Scriptures, see what 
a new conviction was in the hearts of the 
apostles. They did not think, or imagine, or 
hope, they knew, that if their bodies were dis- 
solved they had an everlasting home above. 
They no more doubted heaven than they did 
earth ; they felt as sure of the future as of 
the present. And so they considered that de- 
parture from earth is not merely endurable, 
but after life's work is over " to die is gain." 
There is no utterance, in all the ages preced- 
ing Christ, which approaches the assurance of 
faith in these exulting words, " to die is gain." 
They show that the immortality, in which 
other men hoped and trusted, had becoixue a 
firm, unfaltering conviction ; and whenever we 
12 



1T8 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



reach the apostolic faith in Jesus, we have the 
same assurance about the future, and no 
longer say, we think, we believe, but we knoiv 
we have a building of God, eternal in the 
heavens. 

Now without touching again the question 
of future punishment which has been so fully 
discussed already, let us consider what inti- 
mations we have concerning the kind of life 
in that future state of being. For though it 
doth not yet appear exactly what we shall be, 
we yet learn much from the teachings of Jesus 
in the Gospel, and of the Holy Spirit in our 
hearts. 

I. PERSONAL IDENTITY. 

In that other state of being we preserve our 
personal identity. The spirit, when it returns 
to God who gave it, does not lose its individ- 
ual character, as the body does in returning 
to the earth, but retains its thoughts, feelings, 
memories, and all its powers. Hence, proper- 
ly speaking, man has not two lives, but one. 
In the body and out of the body he is the 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 179 



same person ; and life is one continuous ca- 
reer which begins on earth but never comes to 
an end. 

How this view of immortality does clothe 
our life with new responsibility ! This little 
span of time is long enough for planting the 
seed whose harvest shall be reaped through 
the endless ages of eternity. This little speck 
of earth is large enough to give rest to the 
soul which is pluming her wings for a higher 
flight above. Even the most trivial thing we 
do is affecting in some degree our whole exist- 
ence, and preparing the way for higher joy or 
deeper sorrow. Our daily work is not, as it 
sometimes seems, a mere finger-mark on the 
sands of time which the waves of eternity will 
wash away; for even when the world has 
crumbled back to chaos we shall feel in our 
characters, for good or evil, the effect of its 
fleeting pursuits. There is no end to human 
life ; and whatsoever a man sows, there will 
be time for him to reap, if not here then here- 
after, the full harvest. 



180 THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



II. ENDLESS PROGRESS. 

But while entering the spirit-world with just 
the same nature and character that we pos- 
sess on leaving this, we believe that our life in 
it will offer opportunities of endless progress. 
The questions which vex us now will find their 
answers then. The doubts which perplex us 
here will all be settled there. The truths 
which we are vainly trying to search out will 
become at last clear to our strengthened vis- 
ion ; new and higher thoughts than we have 
ever dreamed of will pour into our minds ; 
and as the endless a^es roll bv, each will brins: 
something still nobler for our souls to grasp. 
In virtue, also, no less than knowledge, we 
shall have opportunities of constant growth. 
Higher and still higher we can climb the 
heights of excellence, and rise nearer and still 
nearer to the measure of the stature of the per- 
fect child of God. How glorious a life that must 
be, which never leaves us, as the old hymn as- 
serts, M Fixed in an eternal state,'- but offers 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 181 



continually new thoughts to the inquiring 
mind, — new degrees of holiness to the upris- 
ing soul ! 

III. MINISTERING SPIRITS. 

Heaven is a field for higher duties and no- 
bler work than earth. It is painful to hear 
descriptions of the future made up of singing 
psalms, playing harps, and keeping Sabbaths, 
as though these spiritual enjoyments, which 
begin and end solely with ourselves, could 
represent the length and breadth of the heaven- 
ly life ! Why, you have no right to pass even 
a week on earth in this way, much less a whole 
eternity above ! It is probable, indeed, that 
Christian love will always show itself by mak- 
ing melody in the heart unto the Lord, but its 
noblest work must ever be the doing of good 
service to the wayward, suffering children 01 
God. 

No more in heaven than on earth will the 
truly blessed ones remain content in their ev- 
erlasting habitations, and let the world groan 



182 THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



unheeded beneath its weight of sorrow and 
sin. There, as here, they must find as great 
joy in what they freely give, as in what they 
freely receive ; there, as here, they must de- 
light in teaching those below them, no less 
than in learning from those above ; there, as 
here, they must rejoice in each new step in 
holiness, not simply because it brings them 
nearer God, but also because it enables them 
to lift up the lower spirits still. Were it not 
so, we should shrink from heaven as we do 
from a monastery's cell. If to lay aside the 
body is to lay aside all power to comfort the 
sorrowing, strengthen the weak, reclaim the 
erring and save the lost, then no one who is 
filled with the true spirit of Christ will wish 
to be taken from the world. Heaven would 
be no heaven if all generous care for others 
was lacking ; we should grow sick at heart in 
remembering the wide-spread misery which 
still existed, and should pray the good Father 
to send us out on an errand of mercy to the 
world. And are not the holy ones who have 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 183 

passed on, all ministering spirits sent forth to 
minister unto those who have not yet claimed 
their inheritance in the heavens ? 

If you believe the Bible you know that this 
is no idle fancy, but the true angelic life. That 
book tells you that God gives his angels charge 
over his children who still remain on earth ; 
that he sends them with divine strength to 
those who are tempted in the desert ; that he 
bids them carry heavenly comfort to those 
whose Gethsemane is a garden of agony; 
that he places them by the grave to say to all 
mourning hearts, " He whom you seek is not 
here ; he has arisen." From beginning to end 
it speaks of them as chiefly engaged, not in 
their own spiritual culture or enjoyment, but 
in doing his will on earth as in heaven ; and 
therefore we are right in regarding the spirit 
world as a field for higher duties and nobler 
work. 

IV. REUNION OP FRIENDS. 

Finally, we look forward in the future to 
the reunion of those who are separated here. 



184 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



Jesus clearly implied this recognition of friends, 
when he prayed that his disciples might be 
with him in heaven and behold his glory; 
Paul, also, taught it, when he felt a desire to 
depart and be with Christ ; and John, when 
he declared that in the future we shall see 
Christ as he is ; and as for the teachings of 
the Holy Spirit in our hearts — the wishes, 
hopes, longings of our inmost souls, they 
are one and all prophetic of the hour when 
we shall meet again with those who have 
been dearest to us here, and shall meet also 
with a warmer and truer love than we had 
before. 

Without this reunion, even immortality 
would prove but a partial blessing. It is 
much indeed to feel that we live right on, 
preserving our personal identity in spite of 
physical death. It is a cause of rejoicing still 
further, that beyond the grave there is op- 
portunity for endless progress in truth and 
holiness. It is a matter of still more devout 
thanksgiving, that in that higher sphere we 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



185 



are not to be idle spectators of the world's 
sufferings, but are ourselves to be ministering 
spirits unto others. But amid the cries of 
anguish which go up from countless hearts 
and homes about us, we can nowhere find a 
lasting consolation, save in the assurance that 
our souls are to be gladdened by and by when 
the whole family circle will be reunited, and, 
not one member missing, all shall join in lov- 
ing and serving each other and the dear Father 
of us all. 

So without undervaluing the life which now 
is, we would give hearty thanks for that which 
is to come. Thanks, O Lord, that in spite of 
what we call death, our life never comes to an 
end ! Thanks for the new lessons of truth and 
virtue which we shall keep on learning through 
the endless ages! Thanks that even more than 
now, we shall be able to minister to all thy 
needy children, and bring them to their heav- 
enly heritage ! Unnumbered thanks, from the 
depths of our being, that after the long, weary 



186 



THE LIFE THAT IS TO COME. 



months of separation, husband and wife, broth- 
er and sister, parent and child, shall have their 
hour of consolation ! 

Thanks be to God for his unspeakable 
gift! 



THE END. 



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